BANGLADESH is achieving among the highest documented cure rates for TB in any country, rich or poor,"says Dr Methsiri Gunaratne, WHO's regional advisor for communicable diseases. A successful implementation of DOTS has given the country an 85 per cent success rate with combating TB.
Introduced in 1993, DOTS began as a pilot project here covering four subdistricts with one million people on an experimental basis. It has now expanded to cover nearly 60 million people, more than half the country's population.
Resident of a village 17 miles southeast of Dhaka, Anwara Begum, in her early '40s, thought she had a persistent cold. Till a village health worker suggested she visit the local health centre at Sonargaon where she tested positive for TB.
Thanks to DOTS, Anwara was cured eight months later. "I feel so relieved," says her husband Kazem Ali. What especially brought relief was that it took almost no effort on his part to do anything during the eight-month course. A local health worker visited Anwara regularly ensuring she took the prescribed drug under his direct supervision during the entire course period.
The Bangladesh army of 30,000 committed health workers have shown the way. Now it's for others to follow.
