PESHAWAR, Feb 1: Officials of the Afghan TB Control Programme have urged refugees to receive transfer-out-cards before returning home to avoid spreading the epidemic in their country.
"Some of the Afghan refugees, who remain under treatment here, go to Afghanistan and discontinue their treatment," said the officials. They feared that in such circumstances, TB patients not only become a major source of spreading TB back home, but also develop multi-drug resistance tuberculosis.
The officials said that arrangements had been made to give them transfer-out-cards at healthcare facilities established at their respective camps, so that they could continue their treatment back home.
"As the TB needs treatment for eight months some of the refugees while leaving for Afghanistan forget about the importance of their treatment and subsequently get multi-drug resistance TB, which is incurable," said Dr Akmal Naveed, managing director of the Association for Community Development (ACD), TB control programme for Afghan refugees in the NWFP.
Talking to Dawn, he said that some of the patients did not visit doctors at the ACD and other health facilities before repatriation to get necessary information regarding the status and treatment of their ailment. It had increased the chances of inflicting the disease to other normal people in their households and in the neighbourhoods getting infected.
Dr Naveed said that two hospitals, 98 basic health units (BHUs) and 47 laboratories were catering to the needs of 1.3 million refugees in the province, wherein about 10,200 patients had been diagnosed with 65 per cent pulmonary and 35 per cent extra-pulmonary TB during the last three years.
Treatment is being provided under Dots (directly observed treatment short course) for eight months, but discontinuation of treatment may lead to severe complications. These included 60 per cent women and 40 per cent men, whereas 3,000 of them happened to be sputum positive, which is more infections.
