ISLAMABAD:
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to cast a long and deadly shadow across the globe, with Pakistan standing among the countries most affected by the disease.
TB claimed over 1.25 million lives worldwide in 2023, with 8.2m new cases reported despite the fact that it is both preventable and curable.
For Pakistan, the numbers are especially sobering. Over 686,000 Pakistanis, including 81,000 children, developed TB last year. An estimated 47,000 lives were lost to the disease, many of them due to late diagnosis and lack of access to treatment. Experts say that overcrowding, poverty, and weak healthcare infrastructure are some of the conditions where TB thrives.
What makes it particularly dangerous is its ability to spread silently. The infected individuals remain asymptomatic for months, unknowingly passing on the disease. While first-line treatment can cure most TB cases, the rising number of drug-resistant TB cases presents a serious public health threat.
In 2023, 15,000 people in Pakistan developed Rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB)a particularly hard-to-treat form of the disease.
Rifampicin, a cornerstone of TB treatment, becomes ineffective in such cases, forcing patients to rely on more complex and toxic second-line therapies.
Historically, RR-TB treatment lasted up to two years and involved painful injections, often with disappointing outcomes. Fortunately, recent advances have introduced shorter, all-oral regimens such as BPaLM, offering hope for better results and fewer side effects.
