DHAKA, Dec 5, 2022 (BSS)- Citing a statistic of World Health Organization (WHO), speakers at a discussion today said about 3.60 lakh people are affected by Tuberculosis (TB) in the country annually.

However, it is not possible to identify 15 percent of those patients. Hence, they remain unidentified mainly due to lack of awareness and social stigma, though there is an improved system of its treatment available in the country, they observed.

Last year, about 44,000 TB affected people died in the country, they said at a discussion titled 'Advocacy Networking Meeting on TB and COVID-19' at a hotel at Gulshan-2 in the capital.
 
Organized by Nari Maitree, a national development organization, National TB Control Programme Line Director Dr Md Khurshid Alam addressed it as the chief guest with Nari Maitree Executive Director Shaheen Akter Dolly in the chair.

Dhaka North City Corporation Chief Health Officer Brigadier General Md Zubaidur Rahman, NTP Assistant Director Dr Afzalur Rahman and Head of communicable disease programme of BRAC Dr Shayla Islam, among others, spoke at the event.

The speakers said, on an average, minimum 978 people are being affected by the disease daily. Of them, 16 are Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) patients, they added.

To eliminate TB, it is needed to strengthen advocacy and coordination among all stakeholders, and increased funding by donors, and attaching priority to the issue of treatment of TB, they said.
 
Over 50 representatives from various organizations attended the event.
 
Director of Health and Nutrition Division of Nari Maitree Masuda Begum read out the keynote paper.

She said that Bangladesh government is working to formulate a five-year long (2021-2025) national plan of action for prevention of TB.

Dr Khurshid said National TB Control Programme is working for eradicating TB.

Dolly said, "We are hopeful that we would be able to root out the disease from Bangladesh soon with the combined efforts of all concerned."