PESHAWAR, Feb 11: The number of registered patients of tuberculosis in the NWFP has increased to 24,500, an official has said. “We had 24,500 registered TB patients in 2005 against 18,500 in 2004. Lack of awareness and discontinuation of treatment are the main reasons of increase in the number of patients,” NWFP TB Control Programme Manager Dr Abdul Ghafoor told Dawn.

He said 54 per cent of the patients were female and 46 per cent male.

According to him, the government would spend Rs649 million over four years on the treatment of TB patients. Of the amount, Rs30 million has been allocated by the provincial government while Rs619 million has been pledged by the German government. During 2001-5, the government had allocated Rs62.2 million for TB control.

He said that a high-tech laboratory would be opened in a city hospital on Feb 14 that would offer free services to the patients requiring culture sensitivity test for acid fast bacillus (AFB).

Earlier, the patients had to go to Karachi for the tests, which cost about Rs1,800, he said.

Dr Ghafoor claimed that the treatment success rate in Frontier was 89 per cent against the World Health Organization’s target of 85 per cent. Furthermore, the detection rate set by the WHO was 70 per cent and it was 66 per cent in the NWFP.

According to him, all of the TB patients are being treated free of cost under the directly observed treatment short course (Dots) at 166 diagnostic and 800 treatment centres in 24 district of the province.

The doctor said 80 per cent of TB patients were in the age group of 14-49 years.