PESHAWAR, Jan 30: Estimates show that every tenth Afghan living in refugees camps in the suburbs of the city is suffering from tuberculosis, Dawn has learnt from doctors.

The doctors say the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) is very high and alarming among both the old and new Afghan refugees.

Shalbabo, a 35-year-old woman, living in the Kucha Garhi refugee camp, told Dawn that doctors had diagnosed her as suffering from TB last year and since then she had been leading a very miserable life.

Having left her homeland five years ago, she began living   in the refugee camp, where she got infected with the deadly disease.

Shalbabo said that being a patient and being the mother of four children, she had to face many hardships. She feared that her children and husband also might get infected with the disease.

Haidar Ali, a head dispenser in the Al-Saudi Tuberculosis Hospital, said that no other disease would be so common among the refugees as tuberculosis was. He added that the living conditions of most refugees made them very vulnerable to the infectious disease.

He said that on an average, more than 200 refugees daily visited the out patient department (OPD) of the hospital. “Out of the total patients, who daily visit the OPD, about 10 are diagnosed as full-blown tuberculosis cases.”

When asked about the ratio of patients in the hospital, Ali said though patients included both men and women of all ages, female patients outnumbered the male ones.

The dispenser said the children who were breast-fed by their ailing mothers were at greater risk of catching the disease.

Dr Naeem, an Afghan doctor in the Al-Suadi Tuberculosis Hospital, while talking to Dawn, deplored the alarming rise of TB among the refugees.

He attributed the fast spread of the disease to the poor living conditions in the refugees camps.

“TB is a disease which flourishes in war and poverty and Afghanistan is a fertile land for it and its people are the most vulnerable ones”, the doctor said and mentioned illiteracy as another main contributing factor that was causing the spread of tuberculosis among the refugees.

“Majority of the illiterate Afghan refugees don’t follow the treatment prescribed by doctors”, he added.