Around seven lakh people have been suffering from tuberculosis (TB) and a TB patient dies every ten minutes in Bangladesh.

And in every two minutes, one person is affected by the disease.

The statistics was revealed at a symposium on 'Update on TB management: role of Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) in TB control' held in Chittagong on Wednesday.

Prof. Camilo C. Roa, Jr. of clinical medicine department of University of Philippines, presented the keynote paper at the symposium organised by the Chest and Heart Association (CHA) of Bangladesh and sponsored by Novartis (Bangladesh) Limited.

State Minister for Forest and Environment Jafrul Islam

Chowdhury attended the symposium as chief guest while Dr. Golam Martuza Harun and Dr. Khurshid Jamil Chowdhury, president and general secretary of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), Chittagong chapter, were present as special guests.

In terms of TB burden, Bangladesh is the fourth after India, China and Indonesia, the discussants said.

Although the National TB Control Programme has achieved 83 per cent cure rate, case detection remains at 34 per cent, they said calling TB a 'silent killer.'

The symptoms of tuberculosis are fatigue, weight loss, anorexia, low-grade fever, night sweat and dry cough and sometimes cough with blood.

TB has been one of the world's

most deadly epidemics. If effective measures are not applied, the epidemic will get worse, the speakers said.

Modern treatment of TB needs three to five different drugs simultaneously, depending on the patient's category. Anti-TB drugs can be given as a single dose formulation or as FDC formulation.

The World Health Organisation and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease advocate this modern treatment.

Prof. Dr Mahbub Kamal, Prof. Dr Nurun Nabi, Dr MA Fayez, Dr Ridwanur Rahman and Ashfaque ur Rahman, managing director of Novartis, also spoke. Prof. AKM Shamsul Huq, president of the CHA, presided.