June 08, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1427

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PESHAWAR, June 7: The NWFP health department is conducting a study to determine the causes of higher prevalence of TB among women.

According to an official, the number of TB patients in the country includes 52 per cent females and 48 per cent males. On the contrary, the prevalence of TB among men is higher than women throughout the world.

Dr Abdul Ghafoor, Manager of the NWFP TB Control Programme, told this correspondent that of the total 24,500 TB patients registered in the province in 2005, 14,050 were females and 10,440 males.

“However, the treatment ratio of the patients in the Frontier province is 89 per cent as compared to 85 per cent target set forth by the World Health Organization”, he claimed.

The study, he said, would be conducted in phases and would also recommend steps to stem the tide of the ailment among women.

According to him, the provincial TB control programme had registered 245 patients in the quake-hit district of Abbottabad during the first quarter of the current year, including 125 females, whereas in Battagram the number of female patients was 39 out of the total 57 patients. In Mansehra, number of the female patients was 92 of the total detected 157 patients, he said.

He said that 110 women patients were diagnosed as TB patients against 83 men in Shangla district, whereas the number of women patients in Kohistan was 48 against 10 men.

Dr Ghafoor said that the reports on TB patients in the province were being compiled on quarterly basis, adding that 6,182 patients of TB had been registered in the first quarter of the current year from the entire province.

He rejected the impression that the number of TB patients had risen in the province and said that the level of patients’ awareness regarding the disease and accessibility to diagnostic and treatment centers had been increased.

He said that government-run free diagnostic and treatment facilities were attracting the patients but there was need for more awareness campaigns.