LAHORE: A core group of medical experts, health managers and international partners is being formed for the treatment and control of tuberculosis in Punjab.

Punjab Health Secretary Jawad Rafique Malik said this addressing a seminar organised by his department in connection with World Tuberculosis Day on Thursday at Alhamra Hall. The government would provide staff and financial resources for the purpose, he added.

Health Director General Dr Zahid Pervaiz, Pakistan Chest Society president and Professor of Pulmonary Diseases at Services Hospital Prof Kamran Cheema, National TB Control Programme Coordinator Dr Ijaz Qadir, medical experts, representatives of international development partners, NGOs and the civil society also attended the seminar.

TB Programme Provincial Coordinator Dr Abdul Majid gave presentation regarding the steps taken by the provincial government to fight the disease. He said every year nine million people were affected by the bacteria and Pakistan was the fourth country with maximum TB prevalence.

He said in Pakistan 15-45 years age group people mostly became victim of TB. He said under Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) Programme, 559 Basic Management Units (BMUs) were providing treatment facilities to TB patients, whereas 1,248 general practitioners (GPs) have also been registered under provincial TB control programme. He said Punjab government was planning to enhance scope of this programme.

Dr Majid said E-monitoring system for checking medicines stock and data on TB patients was also functioning and six laboratories had been established for providing diagnostic facilities to the patients. He said five digital x-ray machines were also being installed in different cities.

Moreover, he said, Al-Khidmat Foundation hospitals had also been registered under TB control programme where free medicines would be provided to patients. “More than 11 centres for drug resistant TB patients are handling complicated TB cases”, he said. Childhood TB programme had also been launched to diagnose the disease in children, he added.

Prof Kamran Cheema said the real challenge was to identify the TB patients who discontinued their treatment and had become drug resistant. “The treatment of drug resistant TB patients is very difficult and their percentage of cure is less than that of the routine patients”, he said. He said TB patients should complete their treatment course of six months without a pause to get rid of the disease.

Dr Ijaz Qadeer said most of the financial burden of TB control activities in Pakistan had been shared by international development partners. “We should adopt a policy to provide all funding for TB Control Programme”, Dr Ijaz suggested.

He said global partners were helping Pakistan under the slogan, ‘TB anywhere, TB everywhere’. Dr Qadeer said search for the missing TB patients was very important as one such patient could affect 15 others around him.

Dr Zahid Pervaiz said strenuous efforts had been made at federal and provincial levels to fight the menance of TB but the relevant data on patients indicated that still a lot of work was to be done to get the target.

He stressed the need for holding meeting after every three months to implement Active Case Finding Strategy.

Jawad Rafique Malik assured the participants that suggestions the stakeholders shared in the seminar would be considered to eradicate TB.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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