World Tuberculosis Day is being marked across the country today by organizing various awareness programs  under the theme 'Yes! We Can End TB: National Campaign, Our Contribution'.  

Director at the National Tuberculosis Centre, Dr Bhuwan Poudel said that this Day is being observed with the commitment of fulfilling responsibilities by all from their respective fields with an objective of ending tuberculosis by 2035 and making the country tuberculosis-free by 2050.

Stating that 42 percent TB patients are still out of treatment in the country, he mentioned that problems have surfaced as most of the patients do not openly talk about their disease as well as inability to use technology.

Poudel shared that 39,151 new patients were detected in fiscal year 2024/25. Of them, 39 percent were women, 61 percent men and 5.6 percent children below 15 years. 

The government has been running tuberculosis treatment service in 6,241 health institutions to control the disease, he said, adding 785 health institutions have been providing specified microscopy service while 142 health institutions are providing rapid testing service free of cost. 

He added that 31 centers and 98 sub-centres are providing treatment for drug resistant tuberculosis as well as the 'Tuberculosis-free Nepal Campaign' has been expanded in 149 local levels and nine AI-assisted digital X-ray machines are being used to test tuberculosis. 

Poudel underlined that 10.7 million active tuberculosis are detected in the world every year. Of them more than 1.2 million people lost their lives.