Although the government and non-government organisations (NGOs) have been working to control the disease, patients' reluctance to complete the full course of medicine due to the lack of awareness hampers the success of their efforts, they said.

If a TB patient does not complete the six-month course of medicine properly, the disease may become severe and turns into Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the speakers said, adding that 70,000 people die from TB and 3,00,000 people contract the disease every year.

They also called on the media to play an important role in raising awareness among the people about the DOTS therapy.

National TB Control Programme, Directorate General of Health, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Brac and the National Press Club jointly organised the workshop on 'Present context of TB control: Role of mass media' at the National Press Club in the city.

The speakers stressed the need to set up DOTS centre in every medical college and institution and to make the existing centres active.

As TB is linked to poverty as well as malnutrition, development of socio-economic condition of the people is equally important along with the TB control programme, said Dr Mahboob Kamal Siddiqui, line director (TB-leprosy), DG Health Services.

"All the TB patients must be brought under DOTS," he added.

At present, the rate of TB detection is 71 percent and the rate of cure is 91 percent, said Dr Nazrul Islam, superintendent, TB Control and Training Institute.

Director of the National Institute of Chest Diseases and Hospital Porf Mostafizur Rahman, Programme Chief of Brac Health Programme Jalal Uddin Ahmed, President of National Press Club Shawkat Mahmud, General Secretary Kamal Uddin Shabuj and Vice-President Abdur Rahman Khan also spoke.