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World TB Day, 24th March 2022


Every year 24th March it is observed as the World Tuberculosis (TB) Day to raise public awareness about TB. The day is also observed to step up efforts to end TB suffering and deaths, with the theme this year

          “Invest to End TB. Save Lives''. 

According to the World Health Organization, every day, over 41,00 people die from TB and nearly 30,000 people fall ill globally with this preventable and curable disease. TB remains a leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, even above HIV/AIDS.

Bhutan reported 862 cases of TB and 55 Multidrug Resistant TB cases in 2021, mostly affecting the productive age group of 15 to 24. There were 25 deaths due to TB in the same year. Over the past few years, drug resistant TB has been on the rise, leading to MDR-TB and Extensively Drug Resistant TB cases among the TB patients, despite achieving high overall treatment success rate. Further, the development of drug resistance and the complexities around its treatment and management is a growing concern for Bhutan, including an increasing case detection gap against the WHO estimates.

Considering the burden of TB and MDR-TB in the country, the Ministry of Health remains committed to invest in and implement a four-pronged strategy; intensifying case finding through rigorous contact tracing, continued targeted screening programs for the vulnerable and at-risk groups, enhancing diagnostic capacities & training of healthcare workers and building partnership with communities to scale up screening and testing. 

Every effort will be made to identify, screen and test all presumptive TB in the community. Therefore, people with cough for 2 weeks or more OR cough for more than 1-week with persistent fever, night sweats, weight loss, and history of contact with a TB case are encouraged to visit the nearest Flu Clinic and health center to get screened for TB. Once diagnosed, taking the full course of treatment without interruption is key to preventing treatment failure and development of resistance to TB medicines.  


𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙏𝘽 𝘿𝙖𝙮, 𝙬𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝘽 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨!


So this means that TB kills more people than Covid19 in Bhutan, yet during pandemic,I feel that we are giving less importance to such diseases, including cancers and only on Covid19. 

Sometimes, I wonder how many people die each day in Bhutan from various diseases? I guess the number could go somewhere between 30-40 people dying each day from various diseases.

Let's cooperate and take care of one another to prevent TB. Stay safe and let's follow the protocol correctly.

Thank you!!

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