Islamabad:
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to emit a long and mortal shadow worldwide, with Pakistan standing among the countries most affected by the disease.
TB claimed more than 1.25 million lives worldwide in 2023, with 8.2 million new cases reported despite the fact that it is preventable and curable.
For Pakistan, the numbers are especially high. More than 686,000 Pakistani, including 81,000 children, developed TB last year. It is estimated that 47,000 lives were lost in the disease, many of them due to late diagnosis and lack of access to treatment. Experts say that overcrowding, weak poverty and infrastructure are some of the conditions in which TB thrown.
What makes it particularly dangerous is its ability to spread silently. Infected individuals remain asymptomatic for months, without knowing it, without knowing it, the disease. Although the first -line treatment can cure most TB cases, the growing number of TB cases resistant to medications has a serious threat to public health.
In 2023, 15,000 people in Pakistan developed Rifampicin resistant TB (RR-TB), a particularly difficult way to treat the disease.
Rifampicin, an cornerstone of TB treatment, becomes ineffective in such cases, forcing patients to trust more complex and toxic second -line therapies.
Historically, RR-TB treatment lasted up to two years and involved painful injections, often with disappointing results. Fortunately, recent advances have introduced shorter and more oral regimes, such as BPALM, offering hope for better results and less side effects.
