Tuberculosis (TB) cases are currently rising due to an increase in latent infections becoming active, pandemic-related health disruptions and growing global travel. To combat the disease’s escalation, Nepal’s youth-led nongovernmental organization, National Youth Movement Against Tuberculosis (NYMAT), mobilizes young people to fight tuberculosis in Nepal.

A Background on Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, an infectious bacterial disease that attacks the lungs, has posed a serious health challenge throughout human history. The disease’s original name, created by ancient Greek physicians and used until the late 19th century, was consumption, which reflected how the sufferers looked as they battled the illness: wasting away as if the disease was consuming their bodies from the inside out.

Today, tuberculosis is still among the top 10 causes of death globally; the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 1.23 million people died of the disease in 2024. It continues to cause a significant impact in regions such as Asia, Africa and Latin America. The current lethality of the disease stems more from the lack of accessible health care in developing regions than the dangerous nature of infection itself.

In the 1950s, a strict, multi-month course of antibiotics was discovered to cure tuberculosis. For the past seven decades, the treatment plan has stayed mostly the same—long, complex and requiring a prescription from a health care provider—allowing tuberculosis to run rampant in countries without sufficient health care access, like Nepal.

Tuberculosis in Nepal

Tuberculosis is officially a health crisis in Nepal, receiving a spot on WHO’s global list of high-burden countries for the disease. The South Asian country experiences about 67,000 new cases each year with an estimated 16,000 deaths annually, based on an incidence rate report available through the National Library of Medicine.

Tuberculosis in Nepal disproportionately affects low-income communities, functioning in a destructive cycle with poverty. Struggling families are more susceptible to the disease since insufficient ventilation in poor households accelerates the transmission of the bacteria, undernutrition weakens the immune system and a lack of education leads to delays in recognizing the symptoms and seeking care.

Tuberculosis in Nepal can reach such drastic numbers due to the country’s lack of accessible health care. Nepal struggles to obtain a sustainable system for its citizens due to geographic isolation—most of the country’s health resources are located in the capital city, leaving other areas of Nepal neglected—and a shortage of medical staff. Instead of prescribing the country a one-size-fits-all solution to the “limited health care” problem, a homegrown organization is fighting tuberculosis in Nepal by focusing on the country’s specific needs.

The National Youth Movement Against Tuberculosis Nepal

In 2018, Nepal started a grassroots youth organization focused on mobilizing young people to “champion tuberculosis awareness and advocacy.” NYMAT Nepal created a dialogue with the nation’s youth, community leaders and stakeholders to define the role young people have in combating the disease.

The organization worked off the fact that tuberculosis disproportionately affects people between the ages of 15 and 34, and that this specific demographic carries the heaviest burdens of the disease. NYMAT Nepal organizes physical and virtual meetings, consultations and workshops to educate Nepal’s youth about the disease and actively involves them in local health systems. Additionally, it encourages young advocates to contribute to the solution by helping them conduct research, implement innovative initiatives and support patients and survivors.

NYMAT Nepal officially registered as a youth-led nongovernmental organization in 2022 and received an award from the National Tuberculosis Control Centre in 2024. Since collaborating with the WHO 1+1 initiative in January 2024, NYMAT Nepal has successfully mobilized more than 1,000 young volunteers, engaged more than a thousand stakeholders in prioritizing TB policies and programs, and conducted outreach programs for more than 55,000 students across the country. Most volunteers involved in these campaigns to fight tuberculosis in Nepal were between 15 and 24 years old.

Looking Ahead

NYMAT Nepal shows not only the impact that a grassroots organization can have by knowing and addressing local needs, but also how powerful the younger generations are. Including young people in causes not only creates solutions in the current time, but also educates future leaders on how to avoid the issue from the start.

– Mia Puleo

Mia is based in Park City, UT, USA and focuses on Good News and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr