Health experts have said around 5.70 lakh people are now suffering from tuberculosis in the country and more than three lakh people contract the disease every year. The death figure has shot up to 66,000 per annum in the country from tuberculosis-related diseases, they said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of Regional Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory at Chest Diseases Hospital here on Saturday. National Tuberculosis Control Programme in collaboration with World Health Organisation and Damien Foundation Bangladesh arranged the ceremony at the Rajshahi Medical College auditorium. Health and Family Welfare Secretary AKM Zafar Ullah Khan attended the ceremony as the chief guest with Director (Micro-bacterial Disease Control) of the Directorate General of Health Services Professor Probhat Chandra Barua in the chair. Director General of Health Services Professor Abul Foyez, Principal of Rajshahi Medical College Professor Fazlur Rahman, Director of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital Brigadier General Khademul Insan Muhammad Iqbal, WHO representative Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol, Director of National Institute of Health and Nutrition Professor Fatema Parvin Chowdhury and country director of Damien Foundation MA Hamid Salim also addressed the meeting. They stressed the need for collective efforts of all the authorities and individuals concerned to help reduce morbidity, mortality and transmission of tuberculosis along with making the nation free from the curse of the disease. The health secretary said the government of Bangladesh was determined to achieve success in TB control through implementing the Directly Observed Treatment strategy during the last 15 years and with enormous efforts of all the stakeholders. In this context, he also said monitoring of the implementation status and achievements in TB control played a vital role in programme planning and advocacy and helped in achieving the success in prevention and control of TB in a better way. In his address of welcome, Superintendent of the Chest Diseases Hospital Dr Wasim Hossain elaborated the salient features of the laboratory and said this was the first such laboratory outside the capital Dhaka. With financial support from Damien Foundation, the laboratory had been established at a cost of Tk 6 crore, which would help detect multi-drug resistance tuberculosis in the region.