KABUL, Afghanistan
The outbreak killed nearly 10,000 people in Afghanistan last year, three times more than the deadly COVID-19 incidents, the chief health official said Wednesday.
Speaking at a conference in the capital Kabul, Public Health Minister Wahid Majrooh said the disease had affected nearly 50,000 people in 2020 and 9,800 patients lost their lives with the disease.
“The World Health Organization estimates that 73,000 Afghans were involved in tuberculosis in Afghanistan last year. But our health system was only able to identify about 50,000 as a result of the limitations created by the coronavirus revolution. About 20% of those victims were children, ”Majrooh said.
The health official said the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on efforts to curb tuberculosis in Afghanistan, and that many patients with the country could not be detected and treated.
The majority of patients with tuberculosis, Majrooh said, are women due to inadequate nutrition, low body immunity, and their lifestyle especially in rural parts of the country.
Hajiani Samia, a 63-year-old tuberculosis patient in Kabul, told Anadolu Group that she had completed the six-month course of a combination of antibiotics, but was still suffering from the disease.
“I may have missed the dose at some point, which is why I still have symptoms of the disease and keep struggling with my breathing,” she said, adding that continued use of antibiotics has had a profound effect on her stomach.
According to health officials in Afghanistan, pandemic patients left tuberculosis on the periphery and reduced their access to health care.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health confirmed 50 new positive cases of COVID-19 and one death on Wednesday. It raised the confirmed cases to 56,226 and the deaths to 2,467.
According to Sima Samar, head of Afghanistan’s TB Control Board, the donor community should not forget that many needy people are suffering from the disease, and need urgent attention, care and support.
The WHO believes that cultural barriers and stigma around consumption as well as the deteriorating security situation continue to be a major challenge in reducing the deadly disease. this in Afghanistan.
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