Health ministry, USAID sign agreement to combat TB in Bangladesh

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DHAKA, June 25, 2019 (BSS) – Health and Family Welfare Ministry and USAID today inked a new Statement of Partnership (SP) to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis in Bangladesh by 2022 through increasing case detection and treatment of all forms of TB.

“USAID Bangladesh will strongly collaborate with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in their mission of searching, preventing, and treating all undetected forms of TB cases,” said a media release here.

The partnership between the health ministry and USAID marks the latest example of USAID’s new model of partnership, the “Global Accelerator to End uberculosis,” which aims to catalyze investments and aid countries across the world and meet the UN target of treating 40 million people by 2022.

The health ministry also reaffirmed Bangladesh’s commitment to significantly reduce cases of TB by 2022.

“Today, by signing the Statement of Partnership, we at USAID recommit ourselves as a close partner of the Bangladesh government, as the country accelerates its efforts to achieve their targets by 2022. Bangladesh needs to detect and treat more than 1.5 million new TB cases over the next five years,” said USAID Mission Director Derrick Brown.

Bangladesh treated more than 2.5 million TB cases in 2018. However, almost 26 percent of cases remain undetected and the rate is even higher for the multi-drug resistant TB cases and child TB cases.

Through signing of the partnership statement, USAID Bangladesh will be a technical partner of Bangladesh government in their journey towards ending TB in Bangladesh, said the media release.

USAID Bangladesh’s TB investments will focus on strengthening the laboratory and diagnostic services, detection and treatment of all forms of Tuberculosis and preventive therapy.