A rapid improvement in treatment methods is needed to prevent the crisis from worsening, Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said at the start of a two-day symposium it co-hosted with Myanmar’s Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Yangon, exploring new ways to accelerate nationwide care.
“Forms of tuberculosis (TB) that cannot be treated with standard drugs are presenting at an alarming rate in the country, with an estimated 8,900 people newly infected every year,” MSF said in a statement.
But despite the rapidly growing number of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) patients, only 800 were being treated in 38 townships in Myanmar at the end of 2012, and as few as 500 may have access to treatment this year, the aid group said.
“Untreated, the airborne and infectious disease is fatal. Rapid scale-up of DR-TB care is urgently needed country-wide to save lives and stem the unchecked crisis,” it said.
Around 300,000 people suffer from some form of TB in the country, where prevalence of the disease is two times the regional average and three times the global average. Myanmar is among the 22 countries with the highest TB burden in the world.
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