0.3m people infected with TB a yr

Nearly 0.3 million (3 lakh) people are infected with tuberculosis and around 66,000 of them die every year in the country, speakers at an orientation have said. They said the community people and social workers have a vital role to play in creating mass-awareness about the disease so that people in general can prevent it by themselves. Community people should have to take the responsibilities of helping the doctors and health workers in identifying TB patients and bring them under treatment. They were addressing the orientation with small private hospitals and clinics about tuberculosis, held in the conference hall of City Hospital in Rajshahi on Sunday afternoon. National TB Control Programme and Rajshahi City Corporation jointly organised the event aimed at creating mass-awareness among the general masses to control TB, according to AFP.