BD to treat over 1.5m new TB cases in next five years

Health ministry, USAID ink deal on it

Health and Family Welfare Ministry and USAID inked on Tuesday a new Statement of Partnership (SP) to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in Bangladesh by 2022 through increasing case detection and treatment of all forms of the disease.

"USAID Bangladesh will strongly collaborate with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in their mission of searching, preventing, and treating all undetected forms of TB cases," said a press release.

The partnership between the health ministry and USAID marks the latest example of USAID's new model of partnership, the "Global Accelerator to End Tuberculosis," which aims to catalyse investments and aid countries across the world and meet the UN target of treating 40 million people by 2022.

The health ministry also reaffirmed Bangladesh's commitment to significantly reduce cases of TB by 2022.

Bangladesh treated more than 2.5 million TB cases in 2018. However, almost 26 per cent of cases remain undetected and the rate is even higher for the multi-drug resistant TB cases and child TB cases.