The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

The number of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis patients is increasing day-by-day in the country.

More than 200 people were diagnosed with Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the extreme stage of the disease, at the Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (IDCH) at Mohakhali in the capital in the last couple of months.

They were diagnosed with MDR-TB since end of last year after the installation of National Tuberculosis Referral Laboratory at the Institute.

The laboratory was established with the technical assistance from the University of Antwerp in Belgium in June last year.

Eighty-eight patients with MDR-TB were detected in 2006 under the Government's National Tuberculosis Control Programme by getting the samples tested in Belgium.

Asif Mujtaba Iqbal, Associate Professor of the IDCH, said, "TB is slowly developing bacterial infection caused by 'mycobacterium bacilli.' TB commonly affects the lungs but can also affect any part of the body. It could spread through cough, sneeze or breath of infected persons. 'People can be infected with the disease through prolonged contact," said Asif Iqbal.

The number of MDR cases would be much higher and it was increasing gradually despite the Government's 92 per cent success in TB treatment and the 72 per cent detection rate in 2007, said the National Consultant of the TB Control Management of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

After the detection, MDR-TB patients would be given treatment under Directly Observed Treatment Short Course Plus programme. MDR happens when a TB patient does not complete the six-month DOTS treatment, said a health expert.

Dr Iqbal Kabir of the WHO said, "Tuberculosis is an illness that usually affects the respiratory system. It is spread by coughing and sneezing."

"TB patients were 60 times more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS than others," he said, adding that the campaign was badly needed to make the people aware of the deadly disease.

"TB is curable and its treatment is free. The disease is not transmitted through things used by the patients," said Dr Iqbal.

A recent report of the WHO said the Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, known as MDR-TB, had reached its highest level worldwide. A total of 45 countries had recorded cases of the most extensively drug-resistant form of the disease.

Quick diagnosis and proper treatment were best ways to stop the drug-resistant forms from developing, said medical experts.