The prevalence rate of Tuberculosis (TB) has decreased in the country by 141 per one lakh people in 2015-16, a survey report said.
“Earlier, the prevalence rate of TB was 400 per one lakh in 2014-15 year which was 260 in 2015-16,” said the report of National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim on Wednesday unveiled the report at a programme at Hotel Sonargaon in the city. The survey was conducted by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and National TB Control Programme (NTP) with the technical assistance of World Health Organisation (WHO). Nasim urged all government and non-government organisations to work unitedly for eliminating the deadly disease Tuberculosis from the country within 2030.
“All have to work together to eliminate TB from the country to help achieve health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG),” he said. “We have tremendous achievements in health sector since last few years… And if we work sincerely from our respective positions it would not be impossible to eliminate TB from the country within six years,” he added. State Minister for Health Zahid Maleque, its Secretary M Serajul Huq Khan, Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad, President of National Anti-tuberculosis Association of Bangladesh (NATAB) Mozaffar Hossain Paltu and WHO representatives also spoke, among others, on the occasion.
For preventing the disease, the speakers laid emphasized on stopping transmission of TB from one person to another. Stressing the need for early detection, they said it is important to detect TB patients as soon as possible and give them proper treatment.
They stressed on good quality of care services especially for under-privileged people, adequate system for screening, sufficient funding and staffing.
