Two hundred one tuberculosis patients have been recorded in Tanahun district. Out of the TB patients recorded until mid-March of the current fiscal year, 2021\22, 130 are noninfectious, according to the district health office. The infectious disease is curable by regularly taking medicines for six months while the recovery rate in the district was 82.1 percent, said chief of the health office, Shankar Babu Adhikari. Treatment for the disease is available at 50 centers and nine laboratories in the district.

Many infected people in the district have been out of treatment due to lack of education, awareness and geographically difficulties, he said. “Challenges are that the infected people should be identified and treated. In some cases, they are forced to hide their infection due to societal taboo attached to the infection.” The government has aimed to eliminate the infection by 2050. Arrangements have been made to reach out to the house of infected people for identification and treatment. Similarly, contact tracing has also been carried out two times every six months, he said. At present, there are 80,000 TV patients in Nepal, according to available data. The age-group of the patients is 15-49. Globally, 5,000 to 6,500 people have died from the infection every year.