KUWAIT CITY, March 24: Director of the Tuberculosis Control Unit at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Awatef Al-Shammari, said that the ministry’s efforts to combat tuberculosis led to a decrease in the number of registered cases and a decrease in the number of infected people from 350 tuberculosis cases per 100,000 population in 1965 to 19 per 100,000 in 2020.

In a speech during the celebration held on Thursday at Al-Saqr Specialized Center, on the occasion of the World Tuberculosis Day, Al-Shammari added that the ministry made great efforts to combat this disease, which led to a noticeable decrease in annual infection rates in Kuwait. She explained that the number of tuberculosis cases worldwide reached about 10 million, including 1.5 million deaths in 2020, noting that the Corona pandemic led to an increase in the number of cases. She pointed out that a ministerial decision was issued last year within the framework of updated plans and strategies to amend the Precautions against Communicable Diseases Law No. 8 of 1969 to classify pulmonary tuberculosis as a quarantine disease. She stated that contact examination services were expanded and a new tuberculosis control clinic was opened at Ali Sabah Al Salem Health Center to serve Ahmadi health district auditors, equipped with a modern digital X-ray device to provide early detection services for tuberculosis, with all other diagnostic services available.

Al-Shammari said, “We chose this year for the activity in Al-Saqr Health Center to highlight the work of the tuberculosis control clinic in the center and the available examination services, including chest x-rays and tuberculin skin tests, with the participation of many parties.” For her part, Director of the Health Promotion Department at the Ministry, Dr. Abeer Al-Bahouh, said that the cumulative decrease in tuberculosis rates per 100,000 people amounted to 11 percent between 2015 and 2020, compared to the main milestone for 2020 in the strategy to eliminate tuberculosis, which is to reduce those rates by 20 percent.

The survey indicated that deaths from tuberculosis in the world, including deaths of people with HIV infection, increased from 1.4 million cases to 1.5 million between 2019 and 2020, which returned the progress achieved to the level recorded in 2017. She explained that this increase “is the annual increase recorded in the number of deaths since 2005 and is attributed to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” noting that the rate of decrease in the number of deaths amounted to only 9.2% instead of the 35% specified as a major target between 2015 and 2020. (KUNA)