Selangor Journal
A doctor examines an x-ray of a tuberculosis patient at the Beijing Tuberculosis Hospital in China, on March 18, 1999. — Picture by REUTERS

Asean needs new tool to fight tuberculosis — Health Ministry

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Asean Member States (AMS) need to have a major step up in financial support to bring game-changing diagnostics, drugs and drug regimens as well as vaccines to market as a new tool to fight tuberculosis (TB), said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

In an article titled “Asean Region Will Invest to End TB. Save Lives”, which was published in conjunction with World Tuberculosis Day 2022 today, the MOH said investment for a new TB vaccine that is safe and more effective than BCG that can protect against all forms of TB in adolescents and adults would be the most powerful tool to rapidly reduce TB incidence.

“Digital technologies are changing healthcare delivery globally, as witnessed by the dramatic growth in such areas as electronic health records, telehealth for ‘virtual’ patient encounters and teleradiology for remote interpretation of imaging studies. There is also an increasing recognition that digital technologies can support medication adherence,” said the MOH, which published the article as the lead country for Regional Tuberculosis Prevention and Control in Asean Health Sector.

The article was made available to Bernama today.

The MOH said AMS should explore the use of digital technologies for ongoing communication and reference for the management of TB patients between countries, adding that investment for TB control and prevention was not just within the healthcare system but went beyond other ministries and countries.

“Issues like poverty and lack of social protection, malnutrition, overcrowding and poor living or working conditions and migration also need attention and must be widely acknowledged by the various AMS,” it added.

According to the ministry, AMS need to further scale up rapid and early diagnosis, expand people-centred care by moving it nearer to patients and their families and introducing shorter and more effective treatment regimens.

These include the rational use of medicines to avoid further development of antimicrobial resistance, expand preventive therapy and research for new tools to prevent TB more efficiently, it added.

“AMS also must boost intersectoral approaches and civil society organisations in improving psychosocial support systems for patients and their families. Together, we will end TB in the Asean Region by 2035,” said the MOH.

The ministry said this year’s World TB Day’s theme “Invest to End TB. Save Lives”, conveyed the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB.

This is especially critical in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic that has put our End TB progress at risk. The Covid-19 pandemic has reversed years of progress in providing essential TB services and reducing the TB disease burden, said the MOH.

According to the MOH, the most obvious impact is a large global drop in the number of people newly diagnosed and reported with TB.

Global targets for reductions in the burden of TB disease have been set as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and the End TB Strategy 2035, with the TB incidence rate as the key indicator for measurement of progress, said the ministry.

Asean members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

— Bernama

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