China makes solid progress in preventing, controlling TB: expert

BEIJING -- Sunday marks the 29th World Tuberculosis (TB) Day. According to the Chinese health authority, the country has made substantial progress in the prevention and control of the disease.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, incidences of TB in China have dropped by 25 percent, said Zhao Yanlin, head of the Center for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).

Zhao also noted that since then, China has maintained a 90 percent cure rate for TB patients.

These achievements reflect the great importance China attaches to the prevention and control of TB. According to Lu Jiang, deputy head of the China CDC, the country has drafted and released three work plans on the regulation and implementation of TB prevention, control and treatment measures. Additionally, the central government funding for relevant work increased from 40 million yuan ($5.63 million) in 2001 to 1.27 billion yuan in 2023.

Chinese health authorities have also rolled out measures to facilitate the treatment of TB patients and relieve their financial burdens. These measures include deducting treatment fees and providing first-line anti-tuberculosis medicine for free.

In terms of TB control, Chinese health experts emphasized the need to improve the efficiency of treatment. Zhang Wenhong, head of the Center for Infectious Diseases with the Shanghai-based Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, pointed out that in order to address the long medication period and subsequent drug resistance problems, shortening the course of treatment is key to eradicating TB.

According to Zhang, a research team of which he is a member has been exploring ways to shorten the treatment course for drug-resistant tuberculosis from two years to six-to-nine months.

Meanwhile, the development of new medicine is equally important. Ding Sheng, director of the Beijing-based Global Health Drug Discovery Institute, said that it is necessary to develop TB medicines with fewer side effects that are easy to apply, making it more likely for patients to adhere to treatment.

Currently, the institute is working together with medicine developers at home and abroad, as well as medical institutions, to advance the research and development of TB medicines.