Amman, March 24 (Petra) - Jordan is a leading country in combating tuberculosis (TB) through health awareness campaigns, training medical staff and monitoring and treating infections, President of the Jordan Centre for Disease Control (JCDC) Adel Bilbeisi said.

In remarks on Monday on World Tuberculosis Day, Bilbeisi said a survey conducted by the center in 2023 showed that Jordan, through the National Strategic Plan 2023-2025, prioritizes accelerating the elimination of TB by 2030.

TB is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that primarily affects the lungs (pulmonary tuberculosis), but it can attack any part of the body (extrapulmonary tuberculosis). It is also spread through the air by droplets from sneezing, coughing, or even talking, and the infection requires a short time to spread, he said.

TB is curable and can be treated with a range of antibiotics, including common drugs such as rifampin and isoniazid combination, but it remains one of the most infectious diseases in the world, with about 3,500 people losing lives every day due to TB, and nearly 30,000 people becoming infected "with this preventable and treatable disease," he said.

Bilbeisi said the global effort to combat TB since 2000 has saved about 79 million lives. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and socioeconomic disparities slowed progress, putting an additional burden on affected populations, especially the most vulnerable.

He pointed out that the 2024 WHO TB report showed that about 10.8 million people were infected worldwide, and 1.25 million died from the disease, including about 161,000 people living with HIV.

The WHO estimates that the TB incidence rate reached 112 per 100,000 people in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, about 8 percent of all cases worldwide, he said, adding that the National Tuberculosis Control Program recorded an incidence rate of 2.3 per 100,000 people in 2023, both pulmonary and non-pulmonary TB.

//Petra//SS



24/03/2025 17:10:09