DISEASE AND DEVELOPMENT
About two decades ago, Gujrat could still be classified as a town. It was associated largely with the shrine of Shah Daulat, where barren women prayed for their fortunes to change. A modest place, Gujrat by 1998 was largely rural but its population concentration resembled urban centres. That was until urbanisation struck, changing the very face of Gujrat city as we know it.
Roads and infrastructure were built, new health and educational institutions popped up, and industry found a firmer footing. Material prosperity had arrived and it was making things better for everyone. Those living in the villages headed to Gujrat city in search of more lucrative employment.
But in the glitter of development, an ugly truth still lurks in Gujrat: more than 2,000 people contract tuberculosis every year, with more patients having contracted the disease in the past decade than ever before.
Did urbanisation have anything to do with this?
Although Gujrat is seeing many uplift projects of late, unplanned urbanisation has given birth to an extraordinary rise in tuberculosis cases in the city
UNDERSTANDING TUBERCULOSIS
As in all third world countries, tuberculosis is a major public health problem in Pakistan, too. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) ranks Pakistan fifth among the 22 high tuberculosis burden countries. Gujrat reports an estimated 2,000 new tuberculosis cases every year.
The incidence of tuberculosis in Pakistan, as per the WHO, is 231 per 100,000 people. Annually, about 420,000 new cases are reported. The WHO also claims that the incidence of tuberculosis in Pakistan is 231 per 100,000 while its prevalence is 350 per 100,000 and the yearly occurrence of sputum positive cases is 80 per 100,000.
Tuberculosis is a disease that typically exists in low-income localities — the WHO explains that poverty and overcrowding are major factors that contribute to the incidence of tuberculosis. And because it is contagious, it spreads from person to person when people who have active tuberculosis cough, spit, speak or sneeze in close quarters.
“One person with tuberculosis can infect up to 10 to15 other people through close contact over the course of a year,” claims the WHO on its website. “Without proper treatment up to two-thirds of people ill with tuberculosis will die.”
But tuberculosis is also preventable and curable. To pinpoint one or two factors as causing tuberculosis would be erroneous. There is a combination of factors at play when it comes to tuberculosis, which are linked with space constraints as much as the immediate and atmospheric environment. Low-income localities are often the worst-hit simply because the majority of contributing factors to tuberculosis are often present in the vicinity.
EVOLUTION OF GUJRAT