A National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTP) report states that the percentage of children infected with TB rose from 4% in 2015 to 4.3% in 2016 and the total number of TB patients increased from 57% to 61% between 2015 and 2016.
The report, which is based on projects conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), was released on Thursday during a press conference held at the National Press Club in Dhaka.
DGHS Microbacterial Diseases Control Programme Director and Line Director (TB and Leprosy) Rouseli Haq said the use of modern equipment had helped detect this increasing number.
Saila Islam, head of Brac’s TB project, concurred, saying: “As we are conducting screenings using better equipment this year, we are being able to detect more cases.”
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.
Bangladesh, which is listed among the 30 high TB burden countries, has an annual occurrence of 225 out of every 1,00,000 people and, on average, 45 out of every 1,00,000 die annually because of tuberculosis.
According to WHO Global TB report 2016, however, the number of new annual TB cases is a little higher at 362,000.
WHO is currently also working with NTP on drafting the protocol for a drug resistance survey (DRS) planned for this year. The results of DRS will be able to provide a better understanding of the national situation and the trend of drug resistance to TB in the country
Until last year, a total of 223,922 people were detected with tuberculosis, including 9,700 multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients.
WHO is providing technical support to authorities to strengthen its activities in addressing the challenges of TB/HIV, MDR-TB and the use of new technologies.
According to the WHO report, Bangladesh is the first country to introduce shorter treatment regimen for MDR-TB and has achieved a high cure rate (75%) for MDR-TB patients.
WHO is currently also working with NTP on drafting the protocol for a drug resistance survey (DRS) planned for this year. The results of DRS will be able to provide a better understanding of the national situation and the trend of drug resistance to TB in the country.
Shamila Sharma, communication officer of the WHO regional office, said the annual decline in TB incidence – which is currently between 1.5% and 2% – is insufficient and needs to be scaled up to at least 10% to 15% for the countries and the region to meet the End TB targets. The global targets seek to reduce TB mortality by 90% and incidence by 80% within 2030.