PESHAWAR, Sept 5: Lack of awareness on the part of the patients and interrupted treatment are the main reasons causing the number of tuberculosis patients to rise, doctors told Dawn here on Friday.
“The government has allocated Rs 16 million against the last’s year Rs 14.5 million for the treatment of TB patients. A total amount of Rs 62.2 million would be spent to extend medicines to all the districts of the NWFP by the year 2005,” said, Dr Abdul Ghafoor, Manager of the TB Control Programme.
According to him, presently 48 per cent of the total TB patients are being treated under directly observed treatment short course (Dots) in 13 districts of the province which would become 60 per cent by extending it to four more districts from Oct 1, for which the training of doctors and paramedics had already been completed.
The WHO guidelines say that 70 per cent of the total cases must be detected to lessen its magnitude by 50 per cent of the community by the year 2010.
During the first six months of the current year 6,500 cases had been registered for treatment under Dots, whereas the number of those being treated in non-Dots centres was 5,000. The TB is a public health problem that affected 80 per cent of the people in the age group of 14- 49 years, the productive period of life.
According to the WHO, one in every four patients die of TB and lays stress on continued treatment under Dots for eight months. The report says that Dots strategy ensures compliance of patients to treatment, where the patients are required to use the anti-TB drugs in direct supervision of doctors.
Every year, 250,000 new cases are being reported in Pakistan. Drugs and investigative facilities are being provided to all the patients at the TB centres established in each district. Anti-TB drugs have no side-affects, but self-medication be avoided.
The NWFP government started TB Control Programme in 1994 with a view to overcome the disease by educating the people. In the wake of the fear of TB transmission from the developing countries to the developed ones, the WHO declared a DOTS strategy in 1994.
Meanwhile, the WHO, has also asked the governments in developing countries to allocate funds for TB programmes under DOTS that prompted the NWFP government to pledge Rs 62.8 million in 2,000 to provide full coverage of TB treatment by the year 2005.
The disease that kills three million people worldwide annually, also sealed the fate of 250,000 in Pakistan, with 95 per cent of the total deaths occurring in developing countries.
Dr Ghafoor said the ailment was 100 per cent curable, but advised that any person with sneezing and three-week cough history should see the doctor to do sputum microscopy and exclude TB as cause. He said that patient’s family also be screened. However, he said that pregnant women should avoid injection and be treated through oral drugs.
About 80 per cent patients suffer from lungs TB, the rest are infected with the TB of bone, lymphnode, intestines, abdomen, brain and kidneys.
He dispelled the impression that dining or sharing utensils and advised the patients to cover their mouths while coughing or sneezing.
About its signs and symptoms, Dr Ghafoor, said that low-grade fever accompanied by chest pain, evening sweats, loss of weight and appetite and blood in sputum.