Every year on March 24, World Tuberculosis Day is celebrated worldwide. Because many countries of the world have succeeded in reducing this disease, the tradition of celebrating victory-festival has been established.

Nepal has not yet achieved the expected success. According to the data of the National Tuberculosis Center, the efforts made to reduce tuberculosis patients from 2015 to 2025 are not satisfactory. It seems that Nepal has controlled only 15 percent of the disease during the said 10-year period. Looking at the latest statistics, every year in Nepal, around 68,500 new tuberculosis patients are added, of which 30,000 people do not receive treatment. Currently, the number of health institutions treating tuberculosis in the country is 6,241, but only 800 of them have been able to provide free medication. In this way, the lack of free treatment services has made it difficult to control the disease.

On top of that, the 1 billion 200 million rupees that the government allocates annually for tuberculosis control seems to be insufficient. The government has also started a campaign to end the tuberculosis epidemic by 2030 and make the country free from tuberculosis by 2050. However, experts have also urged people to be aware of the fact that due to people who do not receive treatment, tuberculosis can spread among themselves and it can take the form of an epidemic.

- Bhuvneshwar Sharma , Chandragiri-2, Kathmandu