About 44,000 Tuberculosis (TB) affected people died in the country in 2021, speakers said based on a statistic from World Health Organization (WHO). Besides, around 3.60 lakh people are affected by Tuberculosis (TB) in the country annually, they said this at a discussion titled ‘Advocacy Networking Meeting on TB and COVID-19’ in a hotel at Gulshan-2 in the capital on Monday. However, it is not possible to identify 15% of those patients., Hence, they remain unidentified mainly due to a lack of awareness and social stigma, though there is an improved system of its treatment available in the country, they observed.    Organized by Nari Maitree, a national development organization, Dr. Md. Khurshid Alam, Line Director of the National TB Control Programme, attended as the chief guest.  Read: For many with disabilities, health inequities lead to early death Chaired by Shaheen Akter Dolly, Executive Director of Nari Maitree, Brig Gen Md. Zubaidur Rahman, Chief Health Officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, Dr. Afzalur Rahman. Assistant Director of NTP, Dr. Shayla Islam, Head of the Communicable Disease programme of BRAC, among others, spoke at the event.        Daily a minimum 978 people are being affected by the disease on average. Of them, 16 are Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) patients, they said.      “To eliminate TB, it is needed to strengthen advocacy and coordination among all stakeholders, and increase funding by donors, and attach priority to the issue of treatment of TB”.  Over 50 representatives from various organizations attended the event.  Presenting the keynote paper, Masuda Begum, Director of Health and Nutrition Division of Nari Maitree, termed TB as the health burden of Bangladesh. Citing statistics of WHO, she said Bangladesh is one of the 30 countries in the world where the disease is more prevalent.      The event was told that the Bangladesh government is working to formulate a five-year long (2021-2025) national plan of action for prevention of TB. Read: Dengue patients are dying due to seeking treatment late: Health Minister An open discussion was also held to inform, mobilize and coordinate TB communities for strategic engagement ahead of the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) in 2023. Dr. Khurshid Alam said, the National TB Control Programme is working to eradicate TB. Stressing collaboration among all the stakeholders, he called for spreading the messages about the availability of free treatment and diagnosis of TB among people through advocacy programmes.  "We are hopeful that we would be able to root out the disease from Bangladesh soon with the combined efforts of all concerned, including the government", said Shaheen Akter Dolly, ED of  Nari Maitree. She called on the government to contribute more financially to make the TB programme a success.  Nari Maitree has been working with the government to end TB since 2004.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Mission Director Randy Ali on Tuesday inaugurated the country’s first one-stop tuberculosis (TB) service centre in the city. US investment helped transform Shyamoli TB hospital into state-of-the-art health facility to test, diagnose and treat all forms of tuberculosis (TB) under one roof. With USAID support, the National TB Programme will open four more one-stop TB service centers across the country in the next several years. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s National TB Programme has transformed the 250-bed TB hospital in Shyamoli into the premier centre to treat TB by equipping the facility with state-of-the-art testing and laboratory equipment.  USAID’s Alliance for Combating TB project also trained a specialized pool of doctors to detect and diagnose the disease—especially multi-drug-resistant TB, and to provide safe and effective treatment for all forms of TB to patients on site. As a result, TB patients no longer need referrals to travel to another facility and are able to begin treatment regimens quickly and more easily following their diagnosis—improving their chances of beating the disease.  “We’re pleased to open the doors to this impressive one-stop TB centre and help protect the lives of many who’re fighting this disease,” said Miller. He said this is part of their shared vision between the United States and Bangladesh in helping people across this country strive for healthier and more prosperous lives for themselves and their families. “Improving access to critical testing and treatment services for all forms of TB—especially multi-drug-resistant strains of the disease—will help Bangladesh cure many more people through timely treatment while preventing new infections,” said USAID Deputy Mission Director Randy Ali. Over the past 10 years, the United States has invested more than $100 million to advance tuberculosis control efforts in Bangladesh and donated 72 GeneXpert rapid TB testing machines to increase detection and treatment rates, and put positive cases under immediate treatment.  Through USAID, the US government has provided more than $8 billion in development assistance to Bangladesh since its independence, said the US Embassy in Bangladesh.

India's federal health ministry said on Saturday there was not enough scientific evidence to link COVID-19 with increase in Tuberculosis (TB) in the country. "Due to the impact of COVID-19 related restrictions, case notifications for TB had decreased by about 25 percent in 2020 but special efforts are being made to mitigate this impact through intensified case finding in OPD settings as well as through active case finding campaigns in the community by all states," the ministry said. Read: Indian COVID variant: Why is it more deadly? "Moreover, there is not enough evidence currently to suggest that there has been an increase in TB cases due to COVID-19 or due to increased case finding efforts." The ministry refuted local media reports alleging that a sudden rise in cases of TB has been noticed among patients who were infected with COVID-19 recently. "It is clarified that TB screening for all COVID-19 positive patients and COVID-19 screening for all diagnosed TB patients has been recommended by the ministry of health and family welfare. States have been asked for convergence in efforts for better surveillance and case finding of TB and COVID-19, as early as August 2020," the ministry said. According to the ministry, the dual morbidity of TB and COVID-19 can be further highlighted through the facts that both the diseases are known to be infectious and primarily attack the lungs, presenting similar symptoms of cough, fever and difficulty in breathing, although TB has a longer incubation period and a slower onset of disease. Read: 17 India returnees test positive for Covid-19 "SARS-CoV-2 infection can make an individual more susceptible to developing active TB disease, as TB is an opportunistic infection like black fungus," the ministry said.

An estimated 1.4 million fewer people received necessary care for tuberculosis (TB) during 2020 compared with the previous year, because of Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Derrick S. Brown has launched USAID’s flagship tuberculosis (TB) activity Alliance for Combating Tuberculosis in Bangladesh (ACTB) in Sylhet Division as part of the US government’s commitment to end TB globally.

Tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease, remains a major public health threat in the country with 99,000 cases reported in the first six months of this year, data show while an estimated 247 cases per day remain undetected due to asymptomatic condition or lack of access to screening of the disease, icddr,b said.