KARACHI: Treatment facilities for TB patients reviewed
KARACHI, April 25: Sindh Health Secretary, Ashiq Hussein Memon, has called upon the Sindh TB Control Programme managers for taking all necessary measures to enhance case detection rate in the cities like Karachi and Hyderabad, besides reducing defaulter rate in certain districts of the province.
At a meeting with the joint Technical Review Mission on Tuberculosis, led by the World Health Organization authorities, held on Friday morning, the health secretary stressed the significance of adequate follow up of all TB patients and maximum involvement of private sector in the Directly Observed Treatment Strategy (DOTS) activities.
The secretary also called for incorporating a component of treating all jail inmates, suffering from TB, in the revised PC-One of the programme.
He pointed out that all the risk factors for TB were present in the local prisons.
He took serious view of the fact that some districts of the province usually delay the submission of quarterly reports of the case detection, sputum conversions and treatment outcome, causing embarrassment for the province.
The delegation, which called on Mr Memon also comprised other partners of the country’s National TB Control Programme, as the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Department of International Development (DID of U.K.), the World Bank, the German Leprosy association and the National TB Control Programme,Yeman.
The Joint mission on TB is currently involved in reviewing the progress and further strengthening of the partnership for control of Tuberculosis.
Mr Memon, talking to the mission members, also underscored the need for an effective coordination between the TB Control Programme officials and the district authorities in the province to help achieve the objectives of the programme to the optimum.
Expressing his overall satisfaction about the programme that achieved 82 per cent of the DOTS coverage in 12 districts of Sindh, he thanked the members of the mission for their support to the programme in the country.
He hoped that the findings of the review mission would help finalizing the revised PC-One of the programme in Sindh with consent of all the stakeholders.
Earlier, in his presentation, the director, Sindh TB Control Programme, Dr Ghulam Nabi Khokar, said that the programme had attained an 82 percent DOTS coverage rate, following training of critical personnel, including 1,128 supervisors and medical officers, 197 laboratory technicians, 957 para medical staff and 3,884 lady health workers.
The personnel were said to be from all 18 towns of Karachi and the districts of Tharparkar, Dadu, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Khairpur and Nawabshah.—APP
