Chitwan, March 23

As many as 7,000 persons die due to tuberculosis every year in Nepal, a country that is home to some 80,000 TB patients.

The figure was made public at an interaction jointly organised by District Public Health Office and Nepal Tuberculosis Prevention Organisation, Chitwan chapter, in Bharatpur on the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day today.

According to data, 45 per cent of the total population and 60 per cent of adult population are prone to the TB virus in Nepal.

Similarly, over 40,000 new TB patients are recorded in the country every year, half of them are victims of communicable TB.

In Chitwan alone, 1,004 new TB patients were recorded in eight months of the current fiscal. The number was 1,201 last year and 1,195 in the fiscal 2014.

According to TB-Leprosy officer at District Public Health Office Jayaram Duwadi, 13 persons have died of TB in the district so far this year. He added that the district had 57 TB treatment centres and 14 test labs. He further said that people between 15 and 24 years of age were mostly affected by the disease.

Of the total TB cases, 82 are lungs-related TB, while the rest are related to other organs. “DPHO and its subordinate offices have been administrating drugs to persons suffering from TB under the direct observation of health workers,” he said.

Speaking at the programme, DPHO Chief Madhusudan Koirala briefed about the programme run by his office for the control and treatment of TB.

“Anyone who’s lost appetite, has fever or has blood in their spittle might be suffering from TB. The patients, however, can be completely cured if they are administered medication regularly,” he said.

According to data, 1.4 million people die of TB in the world every year. Similarly, nine million new cases of TB are recorded across the globe every year. Of them, 90 per cent cases are in under-developed countries.

The country is celebrating World Tuberculosis Day this year with the slogan ‘Let’s be united to stamp out TB’.