TB cases in Singapore drop for sixth year straight in 2024

SINGAPORE - The number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases detected here fell for the sixth year running in 2024.

Men and older people continued to make up the bulk of the 1,156 active infections diagnosed in 2024, down from the 1,201 in 2023, according to a Ministry of Health (MOH) statement on March 23.

Three people caught drug-resistant TB, which is harder to cure and has a treatment success rate some 20 per cent lower than the usual drug-sensitive kind, up from two cases in 2023.

The annual statistics were released ahead of World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.

Tuberculosis is an airborne bacterial disease that commonly attacks the lungs. The World Health Organisation dubbed it “the world’s deadliest infectious disease”, with 1.25 millions deaths recorded globally in 2023 and 10.8 million active cases.

Patients typically experience persistent coughing with phlegm or blood, chest pains and night sweats.

Save for a slight rise in 2018 - when there were 11 more new cases than 2017 – numbers here have declined steadily since the high of 1,617 in 2016.

Those aged 50 and above accounted for most of the new cases in 2024, at 77.9 per cent, and men made up 67.5 per cent of all new patients. The proportion of such cases were 78.2 per cent and 66.4 per cent respectively the previous year.

The disease is endemic here, said the ministry, adding that latent TB infection is not uncommon, with rates of up to 30 per cent among older groups. This means that people may carry the TB bacteria, but are not infectious and show no symptoms.

In Singapore, TB patients are immediately treated and placed on medical leave after diagnosis.

The full course of treatment takes six to nine months and may be extended for the drug-resistant variety, added MOH.

Patients typically become non-infectious soon after treatment, it said.

Since July 2024, TB screening is also mandatory for contacts of patients.

Though TB typically infects the lungs, it can hit any part of the body, like the brain, lymph nodes or bones.

The bacterium spreads when a person with the disease coughs, speaks or sings. Not everyone who is infected gets the disease, as the bacterium can remain latent for a lifetime.

In January 2024, the ministry held a mandatory screening exercise for more than 2,500 people in the Bukit Merah area after active cases linked to a cluster first uncovered in 2022 emerged.

Just two infectious cases were detected from that exercise, 322 were diagnosed with latent TB and 2,158 people tested negative.