The international effort to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) is “in real danger”, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Its latest figures showed there were 8.7 million new cases in 2011 and 1.4 million deaths while there were 1.4 million deaths from tuberculosis in 2011. It warned of “persistently slow progress” in treating tuberculosis which is resistant to antibiotics, BBC health reported.
The TB Alliance said resistant tuberculosis was one of the most “ominous global health threats”. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs but can be found elsewhere in the body.
The TB Alliance said, “Tuberculosis continues to kill more than 1.4 million people every year and drug-resistant TB remains one of the world’s most ominous global health threats, but treatments for this disease are antiquated and inadequate.”
“Standard treatments for drug sensitive tuberculosis must be taken every day for as long as six months to ensure that all bacteria in the patient are eradicated.
“Drug-resistant TB requires a minimum of 18 months of treatment, which includes more toxic drugs and injections.”
Dr Mario Raviglione, from the WHO, said that more 20 million lives had been saved in the past 17 years as a result of international commitments to tackle tuberculosis.
The WHO said there was a massive funding gap for treating the disease in low- and middle-income countries which “threatens to hold back” care.
The report also highlighted problems treating people with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
It said only a fifth of patients thought to have the version of the disease had actually been diagnosed.
Many researchers say that new vaccines will be the only long-term solution to tuberculosis.
The BCG vaccine is 90 years old. It is very effective at preventing severe TB, such as TB meningitis, in children.
However, it is less effective at preventing TB in the lungs, which is where adults and teenagers tends to be infected.
In Pakistan, every disease has become drug-resistant, including malaria, typhoid and TB. But the problem with TB is that it spreads continuously and a thing as simple as coughing and sneezing by a single patient can infect 10 to 20 healthy people in a year.
To this date, TB is the country’s leading cause of death-infectious diseases. About 68,000 people die of TB every year in the country.
In Pakistan, according to WHO, every year at least 40 million people catch TB out of which only 50 per cent are diagnosed of which 20 per cent are illiterate.
The treatment period of 8 months in government and the private hospitals is not helping because the disease has not been eradictated so far.
The disease deteriorated and became multi-drug resistant (MDR TB), then extended drug resistant (XDR TB) and finally extremely extended drug resistant (XXDR TB). The treatment becomes more and more expensive with each stage.
Recently, the treatment period has been minimised from eight to six months at government hospitals and DOTS centres. However, the treatment period at private hospitals still remains eight months.
The number of patients is much more than the data provided by the government, as many are treated at private hospitals. Besides, many patients use self-medication. So in the present circumstances, it becomes extremely difficult to eradicate the disease.
It is inevitable that the government wakes up to the challenge posed by TB and play its role in the world community by taking steps to eradicate it.
