Of the estimated 69,000 undiagnosed tuberculosis patients in the country, the Ministry of Health and Population had planned to identify 41,600 cases in the fiscal year 2022-23. However, only 37,500 infected persons were diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Health authorities are still in the dark about the whereabouts of around 31,000 estimated TB patients.

“Even if we identified around 90 percent of the yearly target, we could not detect thousands of people infected with TB,” said Dr Prajwal Shrestha, director at the National Tuberculosis Control Center. “Thousands of undiagnosed TB patients in the community means heightened risk of spread of the deadly disease.”

Tuberculosis, or TB, is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that most often affects the lungs. When people with TB cough, sneeze or spit, they emit the TB germs into the air, and a person who inhales even a few of these germs can get infected. That’s why it becomes difficult to check the spread of TB, experts say.

According to the World Health Organisation’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2021, every year 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis. The UN health agency says around 1.5 million people die globally every year from TB, making it the world’s top infectious killer.

Nepal started providing TB treatment some 85 years ago, but it continues to remain one of the major public health burdens. The National Prevalence Survey 2018-19 estimated that 117,000 people are currently living with TB in Nepal.

Nepal has committed to ending TB through the WHO END TB Strategy by 2035 and eliminate the disease by 2050.

However, the National Prevalence Survey carried out in 2018-19 with the technical and financial support from the UN health body showed that the country is “not on track’ to meet the target.

Moveover, slash in the health budget, especially the budget of the tuberculosis programme poses a serious threat to the government’s commitment of ending and eradicating the deadly disease from the country, health officials say.

“It is impossible to achieve the goals by single intervention,” said Shrestha. “We cannot reach the key and vulnerable populations by reducing the budget.”

Meanwhile, over 20 leading experts and practitioners in the field of TB research and healthcare who took part in the 3rd edition of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) South Asia TB Day, held on Thursday in Kathmandu, stressed the need for integration of new technologies, and community-based strategies for TB prevention and treatment for eradicating the disease.

Over 80 medical experts and academicians from South Asia, exchanged knowledge and reflections on challenges and breakthroughs in TB treatment and management.

The daylong event, which was spread across one keynote address and four-panel discussions, emphasised the need for increased funding, TB management in complex settings–conflict zones to densely populated urban areas—and the latest vaccine trials. It also aimed to steer the conversation towards social determinants and preventive measures to create a comprehensive approach to effective TB control.