January 04, 2008	Friday	Zilhaj 24, 1428

KARACHI, Jan 3: Experts speaking at a seminar here on Thursday attributed a surge in the incidence of multi-drug resistance among local patients to negligible numbers of laboratories and poor testing facilities for the infection.

Senior chest physicians and infection control experts told the seminar, organised by a local hospital, that the reported three per cent plus incidence of MDR-TB in the country was consequent to inappropriate management of the ailment.

They also expressed their serious reservations about the quality of the referral laboratories already very few in the country.

It was observed that the issue required coordinated efforts by both private and public sector institutions, and that TB prevention, control and management must not be considered as the sole responsibility of the government.

Speakers mentioned that no less than three per cent of all patients in the country had developed multi-drug resistant (MDR -TB). This was in a situation where second line therapy for TB was very expensive, ranging between Rs250,000 and Rs275,000. The experts warned that MDR tuberculosis patients were most potent in spreading the infection.The seminar was attended by doctors from 20 different hospitals.—APP