Notification of Tuberculosis (TB) in Bangladesh

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major public health problem in Bangladesh. Proper & timely diagnosis along with recommended treatment regimen of TB can fully cure the disease. But improper diagnosis and incomplete treatment can complicate a case & enhance spread of the disease. In order to ensure proper TB diagnosis and case management, reduce TB transmission and limit the spread of drug resistant-TB, it is essential to have complete information of all TB cases by the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP). Therefore, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) declared Tuberculosis a mandatory notifiable disease on 30 January 2014. All public and private health providers should notify TB cases diagnosed and/or treated by them to NTP. Notification gives an opportunity to support private sector for following standard practices. It helps the patients to get right diagnosis, treatment, follow up, chemoprophylaxis & facilitates social support systems. Complete and accurate data obtained from notification will allow continuous evaluation of the trend of the disease with better estimation of burden/impact.

Mandatory Notification (MN) of Tuberculosis (TB) can help inclusion of the estimated number of missing TB cases for treatment and management. Government of Bangladesh published gazette in 2014 includes all government and non-government health providers to report any patient diagnosed for TB to the nearest government health official. This can reflect to national data for TB including all cases from root level (i.e. any health providers) to central level i.e. National Tuberculosis Program.


TB was defined for notification as below:


• Any patient diagnosed with sputum specimen positive for acid-fast bacilli, or culture positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or NTP endorsed rapid molecular diagnostic test positive for TB.

• Any patient diagnosed clinically as a case of Tuberculosis, without microbiological confirmation, and initiated on anti-TB drugs.