Letter from Thailand.

Abstract

The Thoracic Society of Thailand under Royal Patronage held their annual scientific conference from 17 to 19 February 2022 in the city of Pattaya, Thailand. The theme was ‘The New Horizon in Pulmonary Medicine’. It was a hybrid meeting with over 300 onsite participants and another 500 online participants. There was also the Annual General Meeting and election of the new Executive Committee. Associate Professor Jamsak Tscheikuna from the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, was elected to be the new President. He and his team will run the society for the next 2 years and reassured members that he will follow the policies of the outgoing President (Associate Professor Nitipatana Chierakul), especially advocacy policies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), PM 2.5 (particulate matter with diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less) and tuberculosis (TB), with the government and related agencies. Thailand has a high burden of TB. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2021, the TB incidence in Thailand is 1.3 times the global rate. Reported diagnosis stands at only 59% of the expected total number of cases. This partly reflects a delay in or lack of access to treatment that leads to spread in the community. As a result, projections of TB cases reduce slowly. In 2015, WHO released a global list of high-burden countries for TB, which include (1) high TB burden countries, (2) high TB–HIV burden countries and (3) high multidrug-resistant and rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/RRTB) burden countries. In 2015, Thailand was placed in all three of the global lists. In 2021, WHO released a new set of global lists of high-burden countries for TB. Thailand has transitioned out of the list of countries with high MDR/RRTB for the first time. There are many other successful stories. TB incidence has declined by more than 10% between 2017 and 2020; WHO estimates that Thailand has a TB incidence of 150 per 100,000 populations (105,000 annual cases), and 11,000 deaths of TB per year. Of the annual TB cases, 9900 were estimated to also be HIV positive. The treatment success rate was 85% of new or relapsed TB cases. The incidence of MDR/RR-TB was estimated at 3.6 per 100,000 population or 2500 cases. The shorter course with a 9–11-month regimen for MDR/RR-TB, which was launched in Thailand in 2018, was indicated as a major factor for the increasing success rate of MDR/RR-TB treatment.