Lack of Political Will, Awareness Hinder Efforts To Control TB in Bangladesh

Low levels of political will and a lack of awareness about tuberculosis are major barriers to controlling the disease in Bangladesh, officials at the National TB Control Program said on Wednesday during a meeting in the capital, Dhaka, OhmyNews reports. Although the program has helped increase both the TB detection rate and the treatment success rate, TB Control Program Manager Vikarunnesa Begum said more political will is required for Bangladesh to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goals target of halving TB incidence by 2015. In addition, drug-resistant strains of the disease, which are 100 times more expensive to treat, are increasing in the country, according to experts. Q.M. Enayet Hossain, a director of the program, said it remains a challenge to inform impoverished people that treatment for TB is available at no cost. According to the TB Control Program, no-cost TB treatment is available at every subdistrict health complex, medical college hospital and general hospital. According to Mahfuza Rifat, a TB program specialist, more than 20 nongovernmental organizations have organized a campaign to raise awareness about TB and its treatment. Rifat called on the media to help "scale up coordinated advocacy and social communications efforts." Afsan Chowdhury, who heads the advocacy unit at the nongovernmental organization BRAC, said, "Journalists must come forward and ask the right questions to both the government and the NGOs to ensure that the goals that are set for the reduction and treatment targets of tuberculosis are met." According to estimates, about half of all adults in Bangladesh carry TB bacteria, and of those adults, 300,000 develop active TB and 70,000 die from the disease annually (Mustofa Sarowar, OhmyNews, 12/7).