March 24 of each year is International Tuberculosis Day. The full form of this disease commonly called TB is tuberculosis. Tuberculosis has been present in human society since ancient times and has been found to be considered a disease and infection. Tuberculosis and rabies are the only diseases that have been present since ancient times.
In Nepal, 69,000 new TB patients have been added annually. The National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey 2074/75 estimates that 69,000 new TB patients are added to Nepal annually. Of these, 67 percent are men, 33 percent are women and seven percent are children.
According to the data released by the National Tuberculosis Control Center on the eve of World Tuberculosis Day for the fiscal year 2077/78, 28,677 TB patients have been registered in Nepal for treatment.
According to the estimated number of TB patients and the number of patients coming for treatment, more than 40,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every year and it is necessary to bring it under treatment, said Dr. Sanjay Kumar Thakur, Director of the Center.
According to the survey, there are 117,000 new and old TB patients in Nepal every year. The survey estimates that 16,000 patients will die.
According to the Centre's statistics, 91 percent of TB patients in Nepal have been successfully treated. The estimated number of drug resistant TB patients is 2200 annually. According to Dr. Thakur, this number is very high in proportion to the population and the World Health Organization has included Nepal in the list of 30 countries with high incidence of drug resistant tuberculosis since 2021.
According to the center, in the fiscal year 2077/78, 569 people were identified as drug resistant tuberculosis in the national tuberculosis program and 418 people were registered for treatment.
Thus, considering the estimated number of drug resistant TB patients and the number of patients coming for treatment, it is even more challenging to bring 1631 people for treatment, said Thakur.
According to the World Health Organization's annual report 2020, about 9.9 million people worldwide were infected with tuberculosis. There were 5.5 million men, 3.3 million women and 1.1 million children. Although tuberculosis is a curable disease, it is estimated that 1.5 million people die annually.
According to medicine, tuberculosis is a disease caused by a bacterial infection called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. There is a risk of transmitting the disease by coming in contact with any TB patient. Unhealthy lifestyles and unhealthy diets also increase the risk of contracting TB.
Common symptoms of tuberculosis include coughing for more than two weeks, coughing up blood in the sputum, and mild fever. According to the Burden of TB in Nepal, tuberculosis is the 10th leading cause of death in Nepal. According to the statistics, half of the population of Nepal suffers from tuberculosis.
The statistics of Burden of TB in Nepal show that 191 patients are added to Nepal every day and 44 people die.
March 24 is celebrated as World Tuberculosis Day. The government is going to celebrate this day with various programs this year as well. The theme of World TB Day 2022 - 'Invest to End TB. Save Lives. '
