Tuberculosis cases in Bangladesh increasing

A person with latent TB can not spread the germ. Nearby people who breathe in the germs can then become infected.

The NSP proposes incentives to private-sector healthcare providers: Rs 250 on registering a TB case, Rs 250 on completion of every month of treatment, and Rs 500 on completion of the entire course of TB treatment.

TB kills more people every year than any other infectious disease, including Aids, says the report – an estimated 1.8 million people in 2015.

In 2015, one million children (below 14 years) fell prey to TB, whereas 170,000 of them died worldwide.

The report, published today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, is a reminder that despite some important gains in recent years, TB-a contagious bacterial disease that mainly affects the lungs-remains a vexing global health problem. If left untreated, a person with active disease can infect up to 15 people simply by coughing or sneezing.

World Health Organization through its headquarters, regional office for Africa and Rwanda country office supports it’s Member States including Rwanda to; develop regional and national TB policies, strategies and standards, to strengthen national TB programmes to enable the country to attain its TB targets among others.

However, NTP officials said children generally comprise 10% of the total number of patients found and the fact that the current number is still as low as 4.3% is worrisome as some of the screenings may have failed to detect TB cases. We first compared model estimates for annual infections per smear-positive TB case using previous empirical estimates from China, Korea and the Philippines.

In 2015, there were 1,696 TB deaths (excluding TB-HIV mortality) reported, which translates to 5.56 TB deaths per 100,000 population.

According to the National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Control 2015-2020, Sri Lanka has successfully maintained a high treatment rate for TB with the highest rate of 87.1 percent in 2011 coupled with a significant decrease in failure to follow up from 13.8 percent in 2000 to 3.5 percent in 2010.

But this number may not tell the full story of the state’s battle with the disease as many TB patients go to private establishments for treatment and may not be counted in the figures the government comes up with.

This can lead to delays in seeking care, and results in transmission of the bacteria to others. In comparison, TB incidence in India reduced 22 per cent in the decade to 2015. Of the overall TB cases recorded in 2016, 8.6% were paediatric. Up to 40% of active TB cases can be missed if the sputum alone is used in diagnosis. He received neither applause nor questions when he finished his lecture, but he had fundamentally changed how we understood TB, and how the disease may be controlled. This triggered a massive contact tracing exercise within the hospital involving more than 100 patients, their relatives and healthcare workers.

There is no one-size-fits-all concrete recommendation for successful TB control because of inherent differences in the TB epidemic and sociopolitical make-ups of countries, but there are some basic considerations that appear to hold true, be it in Asia or elsewhere. In 2014, the report notes, only a quarter of new MDR-TB cases were detected and reported.

In some cases, even more severe drug-resistant TB may develop. Extensive worldwide use of anti-TB drugs has enabled resistant TB bacteria to proliferate and acquire more mutations, and for MDR strains to emerge and spread.

If it costs about RM300 to treat a normal TB patient, MDR-TB treatment may cost up to RM12,000 per patient.

While TB is curable when patients adhere to the treatment regimen, MDR- and XDR-TB are more problematic. This is a World Health Organisation’s (WHO) End TB Strategy, which calls for a 90 percent reduction in tuberculosis (TB) deaths and an 80 percent reduction in the TB incidence rate by 2030. “And this has to be accompanied by adequate funding and political commitment”.

The theme for this year’s World TB Day is the same as 2016’s: Unite To End TB-with a special focus on efforts that will overcome barriers to access quality TB care and leave no one behind.

This means taking a whole-of-society and multidisciplinary approach, in the context of universal health coverage.

Health experts say TB is treatable if it can be identified, and the government is providing free treatment for it.

The solution: The NSP proposes scaling of rapid molecular tests that diagnose drug resistance better.

However, “the rate of decline is too slow to meet the 2020 Sustainable Development Goals and 2035 End TB targets”, the NSP says, adding that prior efforts can not be continued and a new strategy is needed.

To a query, he said a TB patient should take anti-TB drugs as advised by the doctor under the supervision of health worker or some responsible person for six months without interruption.

Dheda said cure rates for drug resistant TB are poor and people can remain infectious and at risk of spreading the disease.