TB cases on rise: Study
At least 2.24 lakh new TB patients were detected in 2016, which is four percent higher than that of the previous year, according to the National TB Control Programme (NTP).
The number of TB cases was 2,23,922 last year while the figure was 2,09,438 in 2015.
“Yet, some 39 percent of TB cases remain undetected,” said Dr Rouseli Haq, line director of the NTP under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
TB incidence in Bangladesh was 3.60 lakh last year, she said referring to the data of the World Health Organization (WHO). However, some 1.3 lakh of those remain unidentified.
“The missing TB patients remain a major risk for the spreading of infectious diseases,” Dr Rouseli said at a press conference organised by the NTP, Brac and their partner NGOs on the eve of World TB Day today.
The WHO says Bangladesh is one of the world's 30 high risk countries for TB, which causes 45 deaths a year per lakh in Bangladesh.
Health experts say TB is treatable if it can be identified, and the government is providing free treatment for it. Early detection of TB means better and faster cure. However, the challenge is a large number of missing cases that remain beyond treatment, they added.
Dr Shayla Islam, head of TB Control Programme at Brac, said crowded slums in cities, garment factories, prisons and impoverished rural communities are at higher risks of spreading TB. However, people from middle and high income groups are also being detected with TB.
A study led by Dr Sayera Banu of icddr,b in 2010 found TB prevalence in the largest prison in Bangladesh was 20 times higher than that of the general population.
Dr Nazis Arefin Saki, focal person on drug-resistant TB at the NTP, in his presentation said that of the TB cases detected last year, childhood TB cases were 9,291, which was 7,984 in 2015.
Childhood TB is usually 10 percent of all TB cases, but only 4.3 percent was detected in Bangladesh in 2016. It is higher than the previous year's figure of 4 percent.
WHO Bangladesh's National Professional Officer Dr Viqarunnesa Begum said measures to detect childhood TB needs to be scaled up as early detection can reduce TB to a great extent.
Health experts identified lack of adequate TB identification and treatment facilities and human resources, especially in the remote and char areas as well as floating nature of people in urban areas as some of the major challenges for eradicating TB.
They suggested more screening of TB in vulnerable communities and using best technologies to detect it.