World TB Day: How to Prevent the Disease

Sustained efforts are needed to eradicate tuberculosis if Pakistan is committed to meeting the National TB Control Program’s goal of successfully ending this epidemic in the country by 2035.

Today, as we observe World TB Day, is a fitting time to reiterate our nation’s commitment to making Pakistan TB-free.

Despite improvements in public health, tuberculosis is still a problem that affects large segments of people both in Pakistan and around the globe. The WHO estimates that in 2021, 10.6 million people worldwide contracted the illness, and 1.6 million people died from TB-related causes.

The grim reality is that the disease is most prevalent in low- and middle-income regions of the world, where over 80% of cases and deaths are recorded. There have been several reports of these instances in South Asian nations like Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.

In fact, Pakistan ranks as one of the world’s top five countries where the disease still has an ominous presence, killing thousands of people every year. According to data from the National TB Control Program, 573,000 individuals were diagnosed with TB in 2020, and 46,000 of them died from the disease. Multidrug-resistant TB is becoming more prevalent, which adds to the difficulty of treating the illness.

Surely, early detection and full treatment are the most effective ways to end the disease. According to the WHO, delays in diagnosis, unsupervised, inappropriate, and inadequate drug regimens and poor follow-up are some of the causes of the increase in multidrug-resistant TB.

The UN agency for health adds that patients who forgo treatment too soon and poor drug quality both contribute to the development of drug resistance. To stop the spread of more virulent TB strains, health professionals urgently need to close these gaps.

In particular, the standard of the medications must be guaranteed, and patients and their families must be advised to finish the course of treatment. Pakistan can handle this public health emergency and get closer to TB eradication with commitment and persistent focus.