SUKKUR, May 26 Tuberculosis, the most fatal disease in the mid of last century and controlled in the sixties and seventies with better medicines and treatment, has once again re-emerged in different parts of rural Sindh.

Despite the claims made by the health department, there has been an alarming increase in TB patients recorded in the TB care centres in Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Shikarpur and other districts.

About 60,000 people lose their lives to TB throughout the country every year, out of which 18,000 die in Sindh alone.

According to information gathered by this correspondent, World Health Organization had launched a project to uproot TB from rural Sindh and had established 37 treatment centres, but the doctors and paramedics at the centres have adopted a negligent attitude due to which the mortal disease is once again on a rise in those areas.

The programme was started by WHO in 2001 for which 11 centres were established in Sukkur, 12 in Khairpur, eight in Shikarpur and six in Ghotki for diagnosing TB patients and their treatment, which spans over a period of eight months.

In Sukkur, these centres were opened in Government Anwar Paracha Hospital, Railway Hospital and other health centres. But inquiries revealed that doctors often remain absent which frustrates TB patients and majority of them are forced to purchase costly medicines from their own resources.

Doctor Saleemul-Hassan Kazmi, in-charge of WHO at Sukkur, informed this correspondent that the organisation had provided necessary structure, including testing micro-laboratories at various centres and large quantity of medicines, but the laboratories were almost non-functional as the staff on duty was normally absent or that they would not conduct sputum test, which is a primary requirement for diagnosing TB disease.

According to him, trained and technical staff is required at these laboratories. The technicians and analysts, instead of doing their duty at government hospital laboratory, prefer to work with private laboratories.

He said the general practitioners in the private sector do not conduct sputum test and start treatment of TB after taking a simple X-ray.

He said that in 2009, 1,396 TB cases were recorded in Sukkur, 1,113 in Ghotki, 2,382 in Khairpur and 1,138 in Shikarpur. During January, February and March 2010, 396 new patients were recorded in Sukkur, 324 in Ghotki, 650 in Khairpur and 324 in Shikarpur, and the number indicates an alarming increase of TB in this area.