Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Malek said that Bangladesh sees about 40,000 deaths due to tuberculosis every year.
The disease is one of the 13th most dangerous causes of death worldwide, he said.
Malek revealed the information at a programme titled, “Launching Workshop on the Community Right and Gender Action Plan 2021-23 for TB” at a city hotel on Wednesday.
He said, “The only good thing about this news is that now we can identify the number of people infected and their whereabouts because we can only treat the disease if we can trace it.”
The rate of success due to treatment has risen from 95 to 97 per cent,” he added.
When asked about the mortality rate due to tuberculosis, he replied that at least 100 individuals are dying due to this disease.
“We barely pay attention to it.”
“South Asian countries have about 86 per cent people having tuberculosis and Bangladesh is in number 7 therefore we need to move forward to contain the disease,” he added.
Bd-pratidin/Ishrar Tabassum/Tanvir/Golam Rosul
