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Published on November 8, 2007

Given that 28 per cent of businesses admitted in a recent survey that TB was a problem, the government has decided to fight the disabling disease by focusing on two million industrial workers at 10,000 sites across the country, Prat Boon-yawongvirot, the permanent secretary for Health, told a press conference yesterday.

TB was a global issue, Prat said. The World Health Organisation has said Thailand is among 22 countries with a worrying rate of TB. A report on the TB situation here last year found 28,349 cases of latent TB, or 88 in every 100,000 people, he said.

Most TB cases are HIV related. About 15 per cent of people with HIV/Aids have TB, while 30 per cent of TB patients were HIV positive.

The ministry submitted a funding proposal to the GFATM in 2002 and Bt5.55 billion was approved, with Bt3.9 billion already used up for seven projects to control Aids, TB and malaria.

Six projects were conducted from February 2002 to last September. The seventh, backed by Bt690 million from the GFATM, would soon be launched to suppress and prevent TB and Aids in workplaces.

The same survey that found 28 per cent of businesses complaining about TB found only 11 per cent identified Aids as hurting their business.

Prat said if managers did not accurately grasp TB, workers with TB might face discrimination, like as those living with HIV/Aids, as well as possible termination or pressure to resign. This would lead to difficulties for hospitals to follow through with TB patients. The patients would stop taking their prescriptions and the disease would spread, making it even more difficult to contain. Less than 80 per cent of TB patients in this country were successfully cured, he said.

The Nation