THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Health plans vaccines, more funding to fight Hepatitis B and TB

Health plans vaccines, more funding to fight Hepatitis B and TB

The Ministry of Health is beefing up its efforts to tackle the spread of Hepatitis B and tuberculosis (TB).

 
It was announced recently that Hepatitis B vaccines for children will be manufactured and the ministry will begin administering the medicine after getting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“In Myanmar, everything from newborn babies up to two-month old infants, are highly infected with Hepatitis B. Therefore the vaccine will be produced for all newborn infants. At present, we are submitting it to the FDA,” said Dr. Khin Khin Htwe from the Ministry of Industry’s pharmacy factory that manufactures the Hepatitis B vaccine. 
The ministry borrowed the money from South Korea, together with South Korean technological aid, for the manufacturing of the vaccine.
The ministry’s Hepatitis B manufacturing factory is located in Hlegu Township, and currently produces about 300,000 vaccines administered to adults every year, which costs Ks 2800 a shot. 
The ministry also announced recently that the budget to fight TB would be raised to Ks 3.7 billion (nearly US$3.7 million) in this fiscal year. The amount is more than riple the rate from the previous fiscal year, when the budget was increased to spend Ks 1.2 billion (nearly US$ 1.2 million) for its TB-fighting plans.
Myanmar first took action against TB in 1966-1967 and extended its operations across the nation. By the 1995-96 fiscal year, the government was spending Ks 14 million fighting TB..
In Myanmar, about 240,000 people are currently suffering the infectious TB disease, according to a report of the World Health Organisation. Myanmar is included among the 22 countries with the highest rate of TBand is one of 27 countries in which most patients suffer from drug-resistant TB.
Myanmar launched the drug-resistant TB treatment program in 2009 and introduced two modern bio-safety level-3 laboratories in Yangon and Mandalay as part of its efforts to fight the disease.
Among the TB patients, some are also HIV-infected and some are drug-resistant TB patients.
About 10 per cent of new TB patients are infected with both TB and HIV, according to a survey of 25 townships conducted in 2012.
 
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