KARACHI, Sept 13: Experts at a seminar on tuberculosis highlighted causes and treatment of the disease and stressed the need for proper training of its correct management.

The seminar was organised by the Pakistan Chest Society to mark the death anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Speaking at the seminar, Executive Director of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Dr Mashoor Alam said that it should be not forgotten that the Father of the Nation had died from tuberculosis. “We owe it to his memory that tuberculosis should be a priority issue of health and it should be mandatory for every health care provider to get training for correct management of the disease,” he said, adding that the seminar was an occasion for many a health personnel to update their knowledge on various pulmonary problems.

Prof Javed Khan of AKU said that one-third of the world population was infected with TB whereas about two million people die from TB and TB-HIV every year. He stressed the need for doctors to follow the standardised management pattern to avert the problem of incorrect diagnosis and incorrect treatment.

Dr Nadeem Rizvi, head of the Chest Medicine Department, JPMC, said that incidence of tuberculosis in Pakistan numbered around 181 per hundred thousand, while 250,000 cases were added every year. He said that effective drugs were available, but there was still a need for new anti-TB drugs, new diagnostic tool and new vaccines to overcome the disease.

Dr Mohammad Hussain discussed the issue of multi-drug resistance and held that TB was a ‘man-made calamity’ which was getting out of the hands of man. The treatment of one case of MDR-TB costs 200 time more than treating an ordinary cases of TB, and duration of treatment is also four times longer. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure correct treatment and expand tuberculosis control programme.

Dr Shaina Qayyum presented the medical history of Quaid-i-Azam, and said that he had developed pleurisy in 1940 and suffered from recurrent chest infection. Tuberculosis was suspected on the basis of the x-ray report by Dr Jal Patel in June 1946, she added.

Dr Shafi Mohammad Khuhawar said that every patient of pulmonary tuberculosis should be encouraged to get a sputum microscopic examination before starting anti-tuberculosis treatment, which was still a cost-effective method.