Tuberculosis problems in the Asia-Pacific region

Tuberculosis (TB) is the top killer of the productive age group in developing countries. More than half of cases in the world occur in Asia-Pacific region. The number of cases will increase in the next decades due to increase in urban poor population and HIV incidence, and poor access to health services and poor TB programme. The mainstay of effective strategy is to promote DOTS. DOTS population coverage is high, 58% in the Western Pacific Region but low; 29% in the southeast Asia region. Even among intermediate TB-burden countries in Asia, reduction of incidence has stagnated in recent years because of aging population, health problems in the urban poor population and influx of populations from high endemic areas. Indicators of successful TB programmes are high cure rate and low drug resistance rate. There is a strong correlation between the overall quality of TB control in the past and the current primary drug-resistant rate. To solve these problems, priority should be given to nationwide implementation of DOTS in high TB-burden countries with emphasis on ensuring availability of free anti-TB drugs and strengthening primary health care. General hospitals and private sector should be involved in control programmes to prevent drug resistant cases.