07 January 2004	Wednesday	14 Ziqa'ad 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 6: Germany has pledged Rs530 assistance for the NWFP TB control programme and achieve 85 per cent diagnosis and treatment target under the Dots strategy within three years.

"Federal Health Secretary Ejaz Rahim last week presided over a meeting of the Inter Agencies Coordination Committee (IACC) here at the health secretariat to work out strategies for better utilization of the fund," NWFP TB Control Programme Manager Dr Abdul Ghafoor told Dawn on Tuesday.

The representatives of other international donor organizations, such as JICA, DFID, GTZ, GLRA, the programme managers of all provinces and national TB control programme manager also attended the meeting and reviewed the progress.

More than 60 per cent of the TB patients in the province were receiving treatment under the directly observed treatment short (Dots) course in 17 districts since 2002, he said and hoped that it would cover the whole province by the end of the current year.

The TB control programme manager said that the grant was meant to ensure 85 per cent cure rate in line with global strategy and to ensure that the patients would have access to diagnostic and treatment facilities by the year 2005.

He said that the Dots strategy, where the TB patients take drugs under the direct supervision of the doctors for eight consecutive months was adopted by the WHO in 1995 and all the developing and Saarc countries had adopted it.

Of the total fund a major portion would be spent on drugs and provision of diagnostic facilities, whereas the rest would be spent on capacity building of the health professionals and logistic support to strengthen the TB control programme.

"The grant is exclusively for the NWFP, which has showed remarkable improvement," claimed Dr Ghafoor. He said that there were 22,000 registered patients in the province with ratio of 55:45 (women and men).

Dr Ghafoor informed that Mission Hospital, TB Association and some of the NGOs had also been made partners to implement the programme effectively along with health department.

Apart from the German assistance, the province would also receive free drugs for the treatment of 5,000 patients under the WHO-sponsored global drug facility programme. He cited congested environment and poverty as the main causes of rise in the TB cases.

Pakistan ranked sixth in the list of highest burdened countries of the world concerning TB, after India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria.

The WHO's estimates shows that incidence of all TB cases in Pakistan was 171/100,000, of which 77 happened to be sputum smear positive which were extremely infectious.

The WHO says that 34,000 new cases were being reported every year in Pakistan including 14,000 sputum smear positive cases. Eighty per cent of the patients suffered from the lungs TB, whereas the rest were infected with TB of bone, lymphnode, intestines, abdomen, brain and kidneys.

Dr Ghafoor set aside the impression that dinning or sharing utensils could cause TB and advised the patients to cover their mouths while coughing or sneezing.

About its signs and symptoms, he said, that low-grade fever accompanied by chest pain, evening sweats, loss of weight and appetite and blood in sputum. He said that the ailment was 100 per cent curable, but advised that any person with sneezing and three-week cough history should consult the doctor to do sputum microscopy and exclude TB as a cause. He said that patient's family should also be screened.

TB, he said, was a public health problem that affected 80 per cent of the people in age group of 14-49 years, the productive period of life. However, he said that pregnant women should avoid injections and be treated through oral medication.