Health experts at a function here on Sunday said tuberculosis (TB) is not a deadly disease
now, but fully curable if the patients take medicines properly for six months at a stretch
as per suggestions of physicians.
“Long term especially for the three weeks cough with pain in the chest, feeling fever at
night, falling down weight, loss of appetite and lethargy are symptoms of the disease. In
that case, the cough of the suspected persons needs to be diagnosed immediately,” they
said.
They made the observations while addressing a round table meeting on ‘TB Control
Programme: Participation of All’ jointly organized by Directorate General of Health
Services and BRAC in the conference room of Civil Surgeon (CS) Office of the town
here with civil surgeon (CS) Dr. Ahad Ali in the chair.
Sadar Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer (UHFPO) Dr. Sahadat Hossain
Khandkar, Fulchhari UHFPO Dr. Amal Chandra Saha and resident medical officer
of Gaibandha Sadar Hospital Dr. ABM Abu Hanif addressed the meeting as resource
persons.
Earlier, the keynote paper on the subject was presented by consultant of chest diseases
clinic Dr. SMA Jalil through multimedia projector and said there are two types of TB
according to the location of infection.
Pulmonary TB or lung TB is the infection that occurs in about 90 percent cases and it
spreads in the air through coughing, spitting and sneezing by a patient who should be
kept in a separate place so that none is affected, he also said.
Extra pulmonary TB that affects any part of the body other than lung such as bones,
glands, pleura, lymph nodes, spine, joints genitor-urinary tract, nerves system and
intestine, he further said.
In the meeting, it was disclosed that a total of 1,396 TB patients are under treatment in
the district and the recovery rate of the disease is about 85 percent.
The function was also addressed, among others, by district women affairs officer Habiba
Khatun, Press club president Gobinda Lal Das, district BRAC representative Amal
Kumar Dam, and journalists Sircar M. Shahiduzzaman and Quazi Ziaul Hafiz.
CS Dr. Ahad Ali in his speech sought more dedication of physicians for successful
control of TB and urged all particularly the media men to create awareness among the
people to build a social movement against TB in the district. -BSS
