March 24, 2003	Monday	Muharram 20, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, March 23: Hospitals are yet to adopt Directly Observed Therapy Short-Course (DOTS) strategy for treatment of tuberculosis that claims more lives than any other curable infectious disease.

DOTS is one of the world’s most cost-effective public health interventions, which not only saves lives but also helps in reducing the relentless spread of TB infection declared as a global emergency by World Health Organization.

As Tuberculosis Day is being observed on Monday, the health department has not been able to register all TB cases in the district primarily because of absence of DOTS in teaching hospitals.

The number of cases registered with the department for treatment are less than 1,000, whereas it is anticipated that around 7,000 people in the district are infected with the disease.

District Health Officer Dr Shoaib Khan told this reporter that the district government extended the DOTS programme throughout the district shortly after the provincial government launched it in Rawalpindi Tehsil.

He regretted that since two third of the district’s 3.75 million population were served by the teaching hospitals, the patients could not take benefit from the DOTS strategy.

Dr Shoaib said his department was making efforts to launch the programme at the hospitals soon.

“TB can be controlled, cured and prevented, and the World Tuberculosis Day calls for doing more to strengthen and expand DOTS programme for achieving the global targets of detecting 70 per cent of all infectious TB cases and curing 85 per cent of those.”

Most of the patients suffering from tuberculosis in the district are below the age of 46 years. These people are also a major part of the work force of the country.

The patients suffering from this resurgent disease fall in the age group of 15 to 46 years and mostly belongs to families of low socio-economic status. Women patients belong to even poorer families as compared to men.

Forty nine per cent of the patients have the responsibility to look after their families, out of which 26 per cent are heads of their respective families, while 23 per cent are mothers and wives.