PESHAWAR, Sept 24: Speakers on the concluding day of a workshop on 'direct observed treatment short (Dots) course' for tuberculosis on Saturday urged the participants to ensure that patients took their medicines for eight months.

The six-day workshop was arranged by the provincial TB control programme in collaboration with the GTZ at the Provincial Health Services Academy.

Experts said at the concluding ceremony of the workshop that the patients should be advised to continue their treatment in line with the Dots strategy continuously for eight months so that they could not develop multi-drug resistance. They said that most of the patients discontinued their treatment, which caused problems.

GTZ Director Sami Yousaf, PHSA Deputy Director Dr Mehmood Alam, Provincial TB Manager Dr Abdul Ghafoor and District TB Central Officer Dr Shahid Ali stressed the need for efforts to strengthen the TB control programme in the province.