World TB Day
25 Mar 10
INF's Dasami Rai with a TB Day hat
INF's Dasami Rai with a TB Day hat

Yesterday was World TB Day, marked annually around the world to raise awareness of this killer disease.

Tuberculosis kills thousands of people each year in Nepal, though the toll has decreased since Nepal's government introduced measures to improve TB control in 1996, when TB was responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 people.

It is estimated that around half of Nepal's population carries TB.

Nepal has around a thousand TB treatment centres and three thousand TB sub-centres. Around thirty thousand people take TB medication. Since 1996 tens of thousands of women community health volunteers have been trained in TB control.

INF's main TB clinic in Nepalgunj had 26,876 visits in the year to July 2009.

Yesterday afternoon INF's Dr Peggy Ashwell and government liaison officer Shital Subedi attended a special function at Kathmandu's City Hall to mark World TB Day. The chief guest was Umakant Chaudhary, Nepal's Minister of Health, and the Director of Nepal's National TB Centre Dr Kashi Kant Jha was also in attendance. Australian Peggy is seconded to the National TB Centre as Programme Management Unit Co-ordinator, managing the TB control activities funded by the Global Fund against AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Please click here to help INF help people with TB and other disabling conditions.

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