PESHAWAR, April 2: Provincial Health Minister Inayatullah Khan has sought public help for adopting preventive measures against life-threatening diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis. “The provincial managers of all diseases control programmes should hold awareness programmes in rural areas and enable community elders, prayer leaders and social workers, to participate in meetings and share their personal experiences and knowledge that could be helpful in educating the masses about the need to adopt preventive measures against disease transmission,” he said.

He was speaking at a function held in connection with the World TB Day organised by the NWFP TB control programme at the Archive Hall here on Sunday.

The minister took serious note of a trend to hold health-related functions in five-star hotels and said that without arranging such programmes in remote parts of the province, it would be difficult to mobilise the masses against the spread of the disease.

“The past experiences have proved that different channels of communication should be used to inform the target audience about all modes of disease transmission,” the health minister said.

He said behavioural changes played a positive role in raising people’s awareness about the lethal diseases, which were considered social taboos, and encouraging all those suffering from diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB to make it public and consult doctors for proper treatment.

“Only proper communication channels like media and mosques could bring about such positive changes in society,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, National TB Control Manager Syed Karram Shah reiterated that the target set for TB free society could be achieved with a little effort.

He assured the provincial government to extend technical and financial assistance needed to achieve 70 per cent TB causes detection target.