World Tuberculosis Day: Proper treatment, not fear, is what TB requires: Experts

The district has witnessed 71,657 cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the last six years with 2,923 people losing their lives to the disease, as per the data provided by the district tuberculosis officer.

District TB officer Ashish Chawla said awareness of the disease is crucial, adding that “Not all kinds of TB are communicable. Extra-pulmonary TB, outside the lungs, isn’t communicable at all. TB doesn’t need us to fear it. It needs treatment. And with proper treatment, it was completely curable.”

Noting that TB continues to be a “public health hazard”, chest expert Dr Amandeep Singh said, “With early diagnosis and proper treatment, there wasn’t much to be afraid of.”

“As soon as you see a persistent fever, cough and weight loss, even in a period of two weeks, you must consult the nearest caregiver so that if there was TB infection it could be discovered early on before much damage and the treatment could start on time. “If you stick to the prescribed regimen the disease is cured within the stipulated period,” he added. However, he warned that if not properly treated the disease could worsen and even raise the chances of mortality. “There are two types of TB, drug-sensitive and drug-resistant. If a patient didn’t take the antituberculous drugs as prescribed the bacteria could develop drug resistance,” he added.

Of the 71,657 cases, 2,903 cases were of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB. The MDR cases were recorded to grow over the last seven years. In 2018, there were 337 cases. In 2023, there were 511.

Dr Singh emphasised sticking to the prescribed course to make sure the bacteria didn’t develop drug resistance in the first place. He also urged people to not fall for misinformation regarding the disease which only made life worse for the patients and their families. “Yes it remains a major public health concern, but it is treatable,” he added.

District TB officer said while there was a simple mechanism for private hospitals to notify patients through a portal, however, they were lax in approach. He added that a private hospital gets ₹500 for notifying a single TB patient. As such, he said, the total number of patients could be higher than the figure available.