Tuberculosis Kills Thousands Every Year in Afghanistan

The Ministry of Public Health announced that tuberculosis or TB kills 13,000 people every year – 58 percent are women. Najibullah Sapi, head of preventive medicine at the Ministry of Public Health, said that the TB virus infects 60,000 Afghans every year. He said there are 1,937 centres across the country for treatment of the disease. USAID has unveiled plans to establish TB treatment centres in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Health in Nangarhar, Balkh, and Herat provinces. USAID said that the work on the centres will be completed within three months. Meanwhile, director of Afghan-Japan Hospital warned that if the disease is not eradicated from Afghanistan, the number of people suffering from the disease might greatly increase. More than 37,000 cases of Tuberculosis were registered in Afghanistan in 2015.