Tuberculosis sufferers need to take advantage of free treatment

An aggressive nationwide campaign to raise awareness about the killer disease tuberculosis (TB) is vital to boost access to free treatment at public health centres to cure the condition, health professionals said on World TB day. "TB is curable, treatable. We want patients to visit health centres to cure it, particularly women. If any one comes across a person with a cough, throat problem or fever for more than three weeks, they should go for a proper medical examination for TB," Dr Wajeeha Qureshi, medical officer at the National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCP), told IRIN in the city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital Islamabad. Tuberculosis is endemic in Pakistan with about 1.5 million people infected, and it ranks sixth among the 22 high-burden tuberculosis countries worldwide, Qureshi said. "An estimated 250,000 fresh cases of TB develop across the country every year, with nearly 80 percent occurring among young people aged between 15 and 49. Economically speaking, it's a big burden as this is the most productive age," Dr Laura Jillini, working with the TB programme of World Health Organization (WHO), told IRIN in Islamabad. In Pakistan, TB treatment is integrated in the primary healthcare network of Basic Health Units (BHUs) or is provided at homes through Lady Health Visitors (LHVs). Treatment is free for a period of eight months. In 2000, the country started implementing the WHO recommended Directly Observed Therapy Short (DOTS) courses to reduce TB and has covered much of the country except isolated parts of Balochistan and Punjab provinces, Qureshi said. "At present, about 115 districts are being covered out of a total 124 - that means nearly 90 percent of the population has access to TB treatment provided they go for it and stick at it, the entire eight-month long treatment is for free," the WHO official said. Although the TB cure rate in Pakistan is some 78 percent a lot of effort needs to be made to improve the detection rate, which is still very low at about 27 percent, Jillini noted. Health professionals maintain poverty, overcrowding, malnourishment, HIV infection and other factors that can make the body's immune system weaker, make people susceptible to TB. "As TB is a communicable disease and spreads through air, people who have a continuous and long exposure to a TB patient are more at risk," Qureshi said. The NTCP gets financial assistance from the development agencies of Canada, Japan, Germany, the UK, the USA, UN bodies and several international NGOs.