SOUTH East Asia is the region most affected by tuberculosis in the world, and there are serious social, political, and economic repercussions from the high incidence of the life-threatening disease.

The number of TB cases in 2017-2018 halved compared with 2009-2010, which was a significant reduction.

The Health and Sports Ministry’s war on TB has been successful to a certain extent, but TB remains a public health problem in our country.

Our country is still among the 30 countries most affected by TB, according to the Global TB Report.

As per the 2018 report, 358 of every 100,000 people in Myanmar are infected with TB, and about 9.3 per cent of new TB patients are also HIV carriers, while about 5 per cent have drug-resistant TB.

To be excluded from the list, we must step up our current efforts in fighting TB and make more efforts for identifying TB patients and providing treatment to them, even in far-flung areas.

Findings and advice from a team of international and local TB experts, who have concluded a survey in the country, would be helpful for our commitment to ridding the country of TB.

Based on the findings of 16 international experts and 21 local experts during their field trip from 11 to 21 August in regions and state, tasks need to be laid down to fight tuberculosis.

In fact, the increase in the number of drug-resistant TB cases is also posing a problem for the healthcare sector in Myanmar.

The Ministry of Health and Sports has adopted a five-year national strategy for fighting TB, as part of efforts towards the World Health Organization’s ‘End TB Strategy’, which seeks to eliminate TB by 2035.

In 2018, the Ministry of Health and Sports provided treatment to over 135,000 TB patients, and recorded an 87 per cent rate of success in nationwide medical care. The ministry’s mobile medical teams carried out field trips to diagnose and treat TB patients, reaching areas which were difficult to access, along with factories and prisons.

The Ministry of Health and Sports cannot fight TB alone. It will take the combined strength of the concerned ministries and departments, international non-governmental organizations, local NGOs, and civil society organizations to rid the country of this contagious disease.

It is also important for people to be able to spot early symptoms, report them to the nearest health department, and take the prescribed medications.