KARACHI, Aug 5: Sindh health minister Ahsan Ahmed has said the danger posed by tuberculosis is of a massive dimension and there will be no success until the private health sector is brought into the disease detection and control system.

“Moreover, medical students should be encouraged to spend some time working with communicable diseases control programme as part of their training,” the minister said in his speech read on his behalf by provincial secretary, health, Khalid Latif Chaudhry, at a seminar on: “The Prevalence of TB and DOTS Strategy in Sindh,” organized by the Augment Health Services here on Monday.

He said private healthcare mechanism is quite a varied group, consisting of NGOs, senior physicians, private medical practioners, polyclinics and pathological laboratories. It is, therefore, critical to determine at the very outset who would be involved in the partnership against tuberculosis.

It is also important to realize that thus far the private sector remains largely alienated from DOTS implementation with resultantly low case detection rates and even lower successful treatment outcomes, he said.

He emphasised that productive collaboration with private practitioners could go a long way in achieving rapid DOTS expansion and TB control.

He pointed out that a challenge to our TB control programme emanates from the fact that although we are all supportive of public-private partnership for disease control, there are few existing working models of effective involvement of private providers in DOTS implementation.

Ahsan Ahmed explained that several studies are underway on tuberculosis in the province with the support of the World Health Organization, the Aga Khan University and the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases to identify the parameters for the role of the private sector in the control of tuberculosis.

These include studies to determine whether provision of free sputum microscopy and anti-TB drugs to general practitioners would help in their case notification to NTP, prevalence studies, and studying gender perspectives concerning tuberculosis.

He said while the findings of these studies should be known very soon, another study has been approved by the WHO for diagnostic and treatment delays in TB case finding and their determinants, which will commence shortly in Pakistan.

He pointed out that the extent and details of collaboration with the private health sector within DOTS framework will vary in different areas.

The shared goal will be to develop innovative ways of supervising therapy and involving communities resulting in better health outcomes, cost effectiveness, equity and quality of care.

He said districts would be the key players in this area with TB control programmes assuming a leadership role to enable the districts in systematically developing public-private partnership in TB control.

Ahsan Ahmed stressed the need for a grater public awareness concerning tuberculosis and observed that it cannot be emphasized in more effective manner than focusing on the emergence of drug resistant forms of tuberculosis.

He appreciated the role being playing by the national press and said the media can also serve to destigmatize the disease so that patients have no qualms or inhibitions while seeking diagnosis or treatment for tuberculosis.

He hoped that efforts initiated by the present government for controlling tuberculosis at the federal, provincial and district levels are sustained and intensified by all future administrations so that we can look forward to a safer environment.

Tariq Asad Shah, general-manager, Augment Health Services, said maintenance of health and treatment of various sufferings is a major problem for overwhelming segment of the population in a country like Pakistan. A vast majority of people can not afford to see a qualified consultant or purchase quality medicines just owing to unprecedented hike in their prices.

Dr Fateh Mohammad Khan, Dr Syed Karam Ali Shah, Prof Lubna Beg, Dr Ghulam Nabi Khokhar, Dr G.N. Kazi, Prof Javed Khan, Dr Sohail Akhter, Dr Noman Bazmi Imam, Dr Ashraf Sadiq, and Dr Amanullah Ansari also spoken.—PPI/APP