Govt will manage resources to eliminate tuberculosis: PM Dahal

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ today said the government would manage required resources for the elimination of tuberculosis from the country.

The government would provide resources to make the national campaign to eliminate tuberculosis a success, he said in a message of best wishes on the occasion of the World Tuberculosis Day. “After making required policies, strategies and plans, the campaign against tuberculosis has come into implementation at 25 local levels under the leadership of the local government in the previous fiscal year.

It aims to expand the campaign to all 753 local levels within four years,” he said, adding that the government is committed to implement all commitments to end the disease made by the government. “The campaign against tuberculosis will be expedited through the multisectoral partnership, and by mobilising required resources after managing a high level mechanism at the federal, provincial and local levels,” read the message of greetings.

He has also appealed to all national and international non-governmental organisations, donors and other stakeholders to help Nepal with the campaign to eliminate the infectious disease. Similarly, Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Population Dev Kumari Guragain stressed the need for making and implementing policies and strategies to eliminate the disease in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Multisectoral Accountability Framework.

The Ministry has been at work to deal with all sorts of challenges and problems in the way of identifying, and treating the disease by making short, mid and long term plans and strategies, she said.

The Day is being observed across the globe including Nepal today. Slogan for the Day is ‘Yes, We Can End Tuberculosis (We Can End TB). In Nepal, around 15 people lost their lives to the disease on a daily basis, and over 180 people fall ill with it, according to the WHO. In Nepal, around 117,000 people are living with TB, according to the National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey 2018-19, carried out jointly by the National TB programme, the Government of Nepal, with the support from the WHO, and other partners.