Thailand ranks the world's No 18 for high incidence of TB infection

[webfact]

Thailand ranks the world's No 18 for high incidence of TB infection

BANGKOK: -- The World Health Organisation has put Thailand the world’s No 18 ranking for high incidence of tuberculosis infection from the previous No 22 ranking, Dr Songkram Sapcharoen, chairman of the central committee of the Anti-Tuberculosis Association, said at a national conference on TB on Wednesday.

Besides the worsening TB situation, he said that there is also a problem of increasing incidence of drug resistance TB and emphysema, he said.

Meanwhile, Public Health Minister Ratchata Ratchatanavin disclosed that there are there are about nine million new TB cases each year according to the WHO and, of these, only six million have access to medical treatment.

As for Thailand, there were 113,900 new TB cases in 2013 but only 60 percent of them or 67,000 registered for treatment. On top of that 19 percent of the old cases have adopted resistance to medication causing medical expenses to skyrocket several times from about 100,000 baht to over a million baht per case, said the minister.

He added that the ministry had set a target to reduce new infection rate by 20 percent from 170 cases per a population of 100,000 to 136 cases. All TB patients, he said, are eligible to free medical treatment.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thailand-ranks-the-worlds-no-18-for-high-incidence-of-tb-infection


-- Thai PBS 2015-07-09

[Neeranam]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and blame................ the foreigner English teachers.

They are responsible for the demise of the Thai education system due to their poor teaching for the 50 minutes they get the students a week.

It follows then that they are the reason for the rise in TB cases.

Prove me wrong.

At least they can write a grammatically correct, relevant, sensible reply to a news story.

If you know nothing about the actual subject, why the need to reply?

[whatproblem]

Not suprised ,Thai men can't stop spitting their germs everywhere

[sammygood]

doctor that prescribes antibiotics for colds, not their fault right, that people get resistent diseases ?

[empireboy]

Education is the best solution!

When will Thailand's authorities make it a serious focus?

[Mot Dang]

I always carry a good quality medical mask folded up in my back pocket now. Just in case I am put in a position where I feel I am just too uncomfortable. If I have to wear it I dispose of it once I'm home. My wife always carries a bottle of the 70% alcohol hand disinfectant we both use. Friends scoff, but stuff them. I wish some falang got the message.

One thing I like to see is more and more Thais wearing them in buses and on the BTS.. Something I think they have learnt off the Japanese expat.

[rametindallas]

The only way to prevent drug-resistant strains of TB from developing is to ensure that patients take every last pill of their regimen and not, as typical, stop when they 'feel better'.

The only way to ensure the TB patients take every last pill of their regimen to to house them, for that period, until they have completed their course of treatment under medical supervision.

When the cost of retroactively treating someone who has become drug resistant costs a million Baht or more, it seems it would be a lot cheaper/better to quarantine all TB patients to be sure they take all their meds and to keep them from infecting others. This is what they did in the US when there were epidemics of TB. It worked.

.

[Maestro]

Removed a troll post.

[Maestro]

How did other countries eradicate TB? I believe vaccination had something to do with it. Has this ever been tried in Thailand? I see no mention of it in the news article.

[ianf]

I am a TB victim. My form of TB was TB-Meningitis. The TB virus attaches itself to the spinal fluid and not the lungs. But since then I have gone from a superbly fit 65-year-old athlete to someone who struggles with health on a day-to-day basis. TB is very rare in the UK and my form is even rarer. t can also kill and I think I survived simply because of my fitness. I must say that the treatment at the RAM in Chiang Mai (ongoing) has been excellent.

[Ulic]

You would think with the 30 baht national health care plan things would be improving.

Clearly there is a problem with getting people to come to the hospital and be tested.

[Jimlove]

For sure its not Thailands fault thats without any doubt ...

Another reason NOT to go to Thailand for Holiday (or anything else) ...

[masuk]

In some less-developed countries, the incidence of TB goes up with the level of HIV in the community. This is due to weakened resistance.

[HenryB]

This is just a plot to put down Thai Medicine which is the best in the World

People from all over EU England and America come here to be treated in Government Hospitals

And say these Thai Hospitals are the greatest