ISLAMABAD, June 19: The government has allocated Rs25 million for the year 2002-03 to control tuberculosis (TB) under the national tuberculosis control programme.

According to the official estimates, Pakistan has the 6th highest number of TB patients in the world with approximately 250,000 being added every year.

The total cost of the programme according to the public sector development programme (PSDP) was Rs66.7 million, however till June 2002, Rs137 million had been spent. The amount suggests the seriousness of the situation as the high incidence and low cure rate was leading to multi-drug resistance, making TB a national priority.

The government had adopted Direct Observed Treatment System (DOTS) for the treatment of the TB patients in 1995 as national strategy for TB control in Pakistan. The plan aimed at achieving 100 per cent coverage by the year 2005 in collaboration with the WHO.

The official estimates suggested that the government had succeeded in increasing the overall DOTS coverage at the national level to around 25 per cent of the population with the help of the provincial government.

Through this programme, the government aimed at detecting 70 per cent TB cases and successfully treating at least 85 per cent of them by 2005. This would help reduce the prevalence and mortality by 50 per cent by 2010.

Globally the TB accounts for 26 per cent of all avoidable deaths. A study carried out recently, suggested that TB took an annual economic toll equivalent to $12 billion from the incomes of poor communities and on average, TB patient and his family lost 20 to 30 per cent of their annual household income. If the patient died, there would be a further loss of an average of 15 years of income.

The TB kills 13,000 people and affects 630,000 people in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) every year. This means that every minute some one from the region develops TB and every five minutes some one dies.