By Ajita Rijal
Kathmandu, Mar. 24: With the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been challenging to ensure continuity of health care services for those coping with various infections, one of them being tuberculosis (TB).
After the COVID-19 breakout, as many as 41,000 tuberculosis patients were unable to obtain a diagnosis, as estimated by the National Tuberculosis Centre (NTC).
“It is challenging for us to find those unidentified and untreated TB patients,” said Dr. Anuj Bhattachan, Director at the NTC.
During the time of pandemic, most of the people were restricted access to health facilities. “Our main focus is to diagnose the TB patients and prescribe them with treatment course,” said Dr. Bhattachan.
According to various studies, it has been found that an untreated TB patient could infect up to 10 to 20 other people.
Controlling TB has also become more challenging as the bacteria causing TB is getting resistant to the commonly used first line drugs, said Dr. Bibek Kumar Lal, Director at SAARC TB and HIV/AIDS Centre.
It has led to emergence of Drug Resistant TB for which the treatment is longer, less effective and expensive, added Dr. Lal.
According to the National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey conducted in the fiscal year 2018/19, around 69,000 new cases of TB are detected every year.
According to the survey, at least 46 people die of the disease every day across the country, causing a significant burden of morbidity and mortality that kills 17,003 people every year, making it one of the leading causes of deaths in Nepal.
It has been estimated that adding both new and old TB patients, around 117,000 are suffering from TB on a yearly basis.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we had conducted rapid response assessment, which helped the TB patients in their regular medications, said Dr. Bhattachan. As many as seven deaths of TB patients were reported due to COVID-19 so far, according to Dr. Bhattachan.
“The symptoms of TB are chest pain, respiratory problems and fever matching COVID-19," said Bhattachan, adding that those patients of TB who have drug-related problems were found at risk of COVID-19. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), TB is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and it most often affects the lungs. TB is spread through air when people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit. A person needs to inhale only a few germs to become infected.
Every year, 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis (TB). Despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from TB each year – making it the world’s top infectious killer, as per WHO.
TB is the leading cause of death of people with HIV and also a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance.
Every year, 24th March is observed as the World Tuberculosis (TB) Day. The theme of the World TB Day 2021 is ‘The Clock is Ticking’ which signifies that the world is running out of time to act on the commitments, to eliminate TB.