Health ministry reports 12,000 deaths a year in Afghanistan from TB

Marking World Tuberculosis Day on Monday in Kabul, the Ministry of Public Health said that up to 12,000 people die from the disease in the country every year.

Mohammad Hassan Ghiasi, the deputy minister, said last year, 76,000 cases of tuberculosis were registered in the country, out of which 52,000 people recovered.

According to Ghiasi, a further 4,800 cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis were registered in Afghanistan.

Ghiasisaid: “It should be remembered that according to the World Health Organization’s estimate, about 76,000 of our compatriots are infected with this disease every year, and among the estimated cases, 12,000 people unfortunately lost their lives.”

In this meeting, representatives of the World Health Organization said that the organization is committed to supporting Afghanistan fight the problem.

Dr Luo Dapeng, representative of the World Health Organization, said: “The World Health Organization continues to support the National Tuberculosis Control Program by providing technical guidance to progress and overcome the existing challenges to eradicate tuberculosis. The World Health Organization is committed to using litigation to eradicate tuberculosis to continue its implementation with the cooperation of the public and private sectors.”

The representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), said the agency is also working with the IEA to identify social and economic factors that contribute to the spread of the disease.

“This office has worked in cooperation with international partners to identify the social and economic factors of tuberculosis and eliminate it. Since 2015, this office has been Afghanistan’s partner in the tuberculosis sector to provide access to services for people at risk,” said a UNDP representative.