KARACHI, March 26: There is a need to coordinate the TB Control and AIDS Control programmes because both infections facilitate each other. Health officials should integrate HIV prevention services with DOTS diagnostic and treatment centres and vice versa.

This suggestion was given by Dr Sharaf Ali Shah of Dow University and Health Sciences (DUHS) at a seminar organised by Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases (OICD) in collaboration with DUHS at the institute.

Dr Sharaf Ali Shah said HIV/AIDS and TB were the biggest causes of death in the world today and both infections facilitated each other.

He said: “TB is the leading cause of death among HIV/AIDS patients. Each year about three million people die due to HIV/AIDS and two million deaths occur due to TB. Forty million people in the world are infected with HIV and two billion people are infected with the TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB. One in ten people infected with TB bacilli will become sick with active TB in their lifetime. People with both HIV and TV infections are 30 times more likely to get active TB.”

Speaking on TB-DOTS in Pakistan, Dr Amanullah Ansari said that the government alone couldn’t eradicate the disease and all stakeholders should participate in the mission. The national TB scenario in the 1990s, he said, was poor. However, after TB was declared a health emergency in the country, there was a visible improvement.

He said case success and detection rates had improved, with the result that Pakistan now stood seventh (earlier sixth) among the high burden countries. Sindh’s performance, he said, was better than other provinces, where the success rate in TB control was around 80pc with minimum relapse rate.

Others who spoke included Professor Masood Hameed Khan, Vice Chancellor DUHS, Dr Ashraf Sadique (Director OICD), Dr Zaman Sheikh, Dr M.Irfan, Dr Nasir Ahmed Rao, Dr Zafaryab Hussain and Dr Faizaullah Shafqat.