ISLAMABAD: Even as the country’s financial condition improves and foreign exchange reserves cross an all-time high mark of $20 billion, the worries of National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCP) continue to grow.

Around 80pc of the funds NTCP receives come from foreign aid, which is proportional to the growth of the GDP. It means foreign funding for the programme will decrease if there is an increase in the GDP, as foreign aid is given only to poor countries.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that NTCP had been running with 80pc foreign funding.

“We are getting Rs10 billion as a foreign funding for the ongoing three-year programme which will end in 2018. The federal government is providing Rs80 million annually, Punjab government Rs1.2 billion, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rs600 million and Rs200 million, respectively, while Balochistan is yet to finalise its allocation.”

Officials say govt should increase local funding to eradicate the disease from country

He added that foreign funding was for another couple of years. Moreover, if the GDP improved, the funding would be reduced.

The government should start allocating funds for the eradication of the disease, he said.

“TB is our local problem so in future we may not get foreign funds like we get for polio,” he said.

The national programme manager for TB, Dr Ejaz Qadeer, told Dawn that according to the disease prevalence survey held in 2011-12, around 420,000 people contract TB every year.

“We provide free of cost treatment to the patients but still a large number of people do not get themselves tested and continue spreading the disease. We are making efforts to ensure local resources in case foreign funding is decreased,” he said.

“Currently, we detect 70pc patients and a strategy has been made to increase the detection rate to 80pc by 2020 and there should be no TB-related deaths,” he said.

There are 1,500 microscopic detection laboratories for TB patients and 5,000 treatment centres across the country. As many as 30 hospitals have been treating Multiple Drug Resistant (MDR) patients.

He said three years ago there was only one laboratory for MDR patients in Pakistan but during the last three years 28 more laboratories were set up in the country.

An MDR patient cannot be treated with the routine medicine because they develop resistance to the virus after stopping treatment midway.

Instead, two years are required for the treatment of an MDR patient, which costs about Rs1 million against Rs70,000 for the treatment of an ordinary TB patient.

When contacted, Dr Asad Hafeez of the Ministry of NHS admitted that the foreign funding for the TB programme would be decreased in future as it was linked to the GDP.

He claimed that PC-1 had been prepared for the provinces to provide local funding for the eradication of the disease.

“TB is our problem and we have to eradicate it so we are also considering ensuring availability of improved diagnostic machines and funds by the federal and provincial governments,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2016