RAWALPINDI, April 4: Treatment of tuberculosis through the Directly Observed Treatment System (DOTS) has been launched in Rawalpindi city; three years after it was introduced in other parts of the district. District Health Officer Dr Shoaib Khan while briefing a delegation of the World Health Organization (WHO), led by Dr J.W. Lee here on Monday, said the teaching hospitals had now been involved in the DOTS programme.

The hospitals cater for the health needs of half of the district’s population that is living in the city. Since these hospitals were not previously providing DOTS, a large segment of the population could not benefit from it.

DOTS is one of the world’s most cost-effective public health interventions which has not only saved lives but also helped in reducing the relentless spread of TB infection.

The number of cases registered with the department for treatment is very less, whereas it is anticipated that around 7,000 people in the district are infected by the disease. The district has a detection rate of about 33 per cent, whereas the national figures stand somewhere around 37 per cent. Ideally the detection rate should have been 70 per cent.

Speaking about the low detection rate, Dr Khan said it was primarily because DOTS was not being administered in the urban areas covered by the teaching hospitals.

He said the two TB hospitals

in the district were not

treating the patients through DOTS. Now, a referral system

has been worked out with these specialized TB hospitals

wherein the patient would be diagnosed and registered by these hospitals and would then be referred to the relevant Basic Health Unit for treatment through DOTS.

The delegation was informed that private practitioners

were also being roped in for

compliance with the WHO regime.

Apart from the continuing stigma attached to the disease, one of the other reasons for the slow detection rate was the use of private practitioners who utilized inappropriate approaches for TB detection.