The 24th of March is World Tuberculosis Day. It’s a worldwide event that aims to raise public awareness of tuberculosis and the efforts made to prevent and treat this disease.
TB is an infectious disease kills many around the world. It is spreads through the air when patients are interacting, coughing, sneezing or laughing.
A person who is suffering from tuberculosis will cough for more than 2 weeks.
In the 1950s, TB was the leading killer disease in Malaya. To deal with the disease a National TB control program was set up in the 1960s. It was successful but now doctors are concern that cases in recent years have risen. Datuk DR Abdul Razak is the Director of Institute of Respiratory.
“In the 90s it was on the rise as well as HIV and if we look at the of tuberculosis cases within this past 2 years, we already have more than 20 thousand new cases of tuberculosis. So the figures rose this past 5-6 years."
Many Malaysians don’t understand TB and think that it’s caused by smoking.
“I think people have less exposure with TB because for TB the impact is from a long time ago, I hope the people know there is still tuberculosis and tuberculosis is the cause of germs instead of water contamination or cigarettes.”
And many don’t recognise the signs like 64-year-old Aishah.
"I have also read about TB and the dangers of it. But I did not take caution as I thought it would not happen to me. But when I got TB and I looked back again, there were signs from my body which showed that I had gotten tuberculosis."
There are some people who blame the increasing amount of TB cases everyday in Malaysia on the Illegal Immigrants who enter Malaysia and don’t do health tests.
The state of Sabah sees more cases than anywhere else partly because of the number of immigrants arriving here from nearby Indonesia and the Philippines.
Legal migrants are tested for TB on arrival, if they are infected they’re immediately deported.
But Sabah also has a huge illegal migrant population.
And there are also cases where doctors have been late in diagnosing TB.
“Sometimes both the patients and doctors are at fault as the doctor might suggest that it may be TB and to go for x-rays, the patient might not follow the suggestions as it could be far, a hassle or because of the long wait. and the treating physician may not have x-ray devices of the equipment to check for tuberculosis. Both parties have a weakness."
Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world that provides free treatment to patients with tuberculosis.
“Although they may be from Indonesia, Bangaledesh, Nepal or Myanmar. We will give them free treatment. And after they recover, we will send them back to their country.”
Various programs and campaigns to combat tuberculosis will be carried out by the government to mark TB day to try and educate people about the disease.
