Islamabad:
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to cast a long and deadly shadow across the globe, where Pakistan stands among the countries most affected by the disease.
TB claimed over 1.25 million lives worldwide by 2023, with 8.2 m new cases reported despite being both preventable and hardenable.
For Pakistan, the numbers are especially sober. Over 686,000 Pakistanis, including 81,000 children, developed TB last year. 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 health 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 and unconsciously pass on the disease. While first-line treatment can cure most TB cases, the increasing number of drug-resistant TB cases presents a serious threat of public health.
By 2023, 15,000 people in Pakistan developed rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB)-a particularly difficult to treat the 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 treatments.
Historically, RR-TB treatment lasted up to two years and involved painful injections, often with disappointing results. Fortunately, recent progress has introduced shorter, all-oral regimes such as BPALM, which gives hope of better results and fewer side effects.
