ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: The ministry of health has finalized a revised feasibility of the five-year Rs1.1 billion National Tuberculosis Control Programme to achieve countrywide control on the disease by ensuring quality care through public sector health facilities.

An official source told Dawn that strict adherence to the NTCP 2005-10 plan being scrutinized for final approval would also help in achieving the Millennium Development Goals by reducing to half the current prevalence and mortality rate due to tuberculosis. Currently, there are 817,960 TB patients in the country.

Perhaps the emergence of multi-drug resistance as a public health issue and a potentially threatening link between TB and HIV/Aids has revived government’s interest in controlling the disease.

The revised feasibility of the project will enable the programme to implement a set of activities identified in the national strategic plan for achieving the desired results through DOTS (directly observed therapy short-course) coverage, case detection and treatment.

Tuberculosis is a major public health problem in Pakistan - a country which ranks sixth among nations with highest burden of tuberculosis and 5.1 per cent of the total national disease burden. The government by declaring TB a national emergency in March 2001 had made it one of the priority components of the National Health Policy 2001.

Like most of the low-income developing countries, there has been almost no decline and instead the number of cases is probably increasing due to population growth and worsening poverty. Therefore, the overall goal of the NTCP is to reduce morbidity, mortality, check transmission of TB, prevent drug resistance and achieve 85 per cent disease cure rate.

The project would also achieve desired results mainly by expansion of DOTS to the public sector as well as through contribution by non-government partners.

One of the aims is to ensure uninterrupted availability to and use of quality drugs on all registered TB patients. According to NTCP guidelines, the purchase of anti-TB drugs will be the responsibility of provinces and districts.

However, only few districts have started purchasing the drugs; therefore, the NTCP would continue supplementing drug supplies for the districts during the next five years.

Through the project, the capacity of the technical and managerial staff including trainers at provincial and district levels would also be enhanced, while the laboratory network in the country would be strengthened by supplementing 20 per cent equipment requirement, 10 per cent laboratory supplies and operationalizing the quality control arrangements through staff training, equipment and mobility support.