World TB Day observed

The World Tuberculosis (TB) Day -2017 was observed in the country on Friday like elsewhere in the globe to create awareness against the fatal disease and mobilize political and social commitments to eliminate it.
World TB Day is observed every year on March 24 to create awareness and support world-wide efforts to eliminate tuberculosis.
This annual event commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes TB.
This year’s World TB Day theme is ‘Unite to End TB.’
Different government and non-government organizations had chalked out elaborate programmes, including rallies, discussions and seminars to observe the day.
Marking the World TB Day, National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTP) of Directorate General and Health Service (DGHS), along with different organizations, brought out a rally from Shahbah to Matshay Bhaban.
On this occasion, the Chest and Heart Association of Bangladesh organized a two-day conference that ended on March 23.
The NTP, in cooperation with different local and international organizations, organized a press conference on Thursday on the eve of the World TB Day.
At the press conference , health experts said tuberculosis remains one of the major public health problems in the country with nearly 1,25,000 TB patients missing.
They said 2,22,600 TB cases were registered in 2016 in the country with the detection rate being 61 percent and missing rate 39 percent. Urban TB control has been a major challenge for Bangladesh as urban setting is more complex than rural setting, the experts added.
Bangladesh has attained 94 percent cure rate of TB treatment against the global target of 85 percent and it also has witnessed success in case detection of the disease, they said.