Community based TB treatment launched
With Bangladesh ranking sixth among countries with heavy tuberculosis burden, the government yesterday launched a community based treatment programme for TB patients.
According to World Health Organisation, an estimated 3,500 TB patients with Multi Drug Resistance (MDR-TB) live in Bangladesh and every year new TB cases emerge.
There are 2.1 percent MDR patients among new TB cases and 28 percent among pre-treatment patients. The estimated prevalence rate of all forms of tuberculosis is 411 in 100,000 people and incident rate 225 in every 100,000.
The programme styled “Community based Programmatic Management of Multi Drug Resistance TB” was launched at a hotel in the capital. USAID is funding it.
Under the programme, a tuberculosis patient will be discharged from hospital within two months and rest of the treatment will continue under close supervision of out patient (MDR) TB team.
It will reduce the overall management cost of treating tuberculosis patients and also reduce the numerous infections the patients get from hospitals.
In the programme, Richard Greene, mission director of USAID, handed over GeneXpert, a tuberculosis diagnostic machine, to Health Minister AFM Ruhul Haque.
The GeneXpert gives TB test result within 2 hours instead of the two months required for results.
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