KARACHI, March 23: Tuber-culosis is more dangerous than Aids and malaria and, as such, effective measures to eliminate the disease from the country are needed to be taken.

This was observed by speakers at a seminar organised by the Karachi chapter of the Pakistan Medical Association on Saturday in connection with the World TB Day, which is observed on March 24 every year to mark the discovery of the bacillus that causes tuberculosis.

According to the data compiled recently, Pakistan is the 8th among the countries having the highest TB burden in the world with an estimated prevalence of 177 per 100,000. Every year, approximately 280,000 people in Pakistan (primarily adults in their productive years) develop TB whereas the case detection rate stands at around 39 per cent — much below the global target of 70 per cent.

In his presentation at the seminar, Dr Amanullah Ansari said that the case detection rate in Sindh last year was 73 per cent, the highest in the country. He further stated that out of the 65,700 patients with infectious diseases registered in 2006, 86 per cent were successfully treated.

According to Dr Ansari, there are 500,000 people with TB at a time in the country and 62,000 die every year. As much as 0.3 per cent of new TB cases are HIV positive.

Dr Aziz Khan, president of the PMA, Karachi, called for collaborative efforts by people from all walks of life to bring down the incidence of TB. “The root cause of the disease is unhygienic practices like spitting carelessly,” he said, warning that the disease could not be eradicated until people did away with such practices.

Dr Nisar Rao of the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases gave a brief account of the clinical presentation of the disease and its management.

He also discussed drawbacks of various diagnostic procedures, and observed that chest X-ray was not reliable in diagnosing the infection as 40 per cent of those who were diagnosed TB patients on the basis of X-ray examination actually were not suffering from the disease.

He emphasised on going for the old three sputum specimen collection method which, according to him, was one of the credible methods in terms of accuracy.

Prof Javaid Khan, head of the Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine Section of the Aga Khan University Hospital, said that the medical curriculum of the country needed changes because most doctors appeared deficient in their knowledge about TB management.

He also referred to the arrival of several new and modern diagnostic tests for TB at various private sector laboratories in the country, and noted that doctors, instead of relying on sputum, smears and cultures, were recommending the new tests which were still research tools even in the developed world.

“The war against TB can be won through collaborative efforts by general physicians and the private health sector, which is managing 80 per cent of TB cases in the country,” he said.

Prof Khan also stressed that the federal and provincial governments should educate people about prevention and treatment of TB through media and inform them about where they could receive the treatment.

He called for participation of private doctors’ representatives in the planning process of TB control activities, case-detection activities within their areas of practice, besides providing them with reliable laboratory services.

He also stressed on ensuring availability of drugs to the patient referred by private doctor to TB centres.

Dr Zeenat Ayub, Director of the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, Dr Kamran Hameed, Secretary Scientific Committee and Dr Samrina Hashmi of the PMA also spoke at the seminar.