The Macau Health Bureau (SSM) says that the city’s success rate of the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) has averaged 94.4 percent over the past two decades, exceeding the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) requirement of 85 percent.
The bureau made the announcement in a statement on Thursday last week, the day before World Tuberculosis Day initiated by the WHO, on March 24.
The statement noted that according to the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2022, 10.6 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis worldwide in 2021, 1.6 million of whom had died of the disease. The statement pointed out that before COVID-19 began to affect the globe in early 2020, tuberculosis had been the deadliest infectious disease worldwide.
The statement also said that Macau’s incidence rate of tuberculosis has constantly been declining over the past 20 years or so. For every 100,000 people in Macau, 109.1 people were diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1998, while the incidence rate had dropped to 44.4 for every 100,000 people last year, representing a decrease of 59.3 percent during the 22-year period, the statement said, adding this meant that the incidence rate dropped around four percent per year on average during the period.
With an ageing population, the statement said, the Health Bureau is currently also facing new challenges in its tuberculosis prevention and control measures.
This undated handout photo released by the Health Bureau (SSM) on Thursday last week shows a health professional briefing school students about tuberculosis.
