KARACHI, April 11: The growing poverty in the country has caused a sharp rise in the number of children falling victim to TB.

This was said by Dr Afaq Ahmed, assistant director National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in Karachi on Thursday, while talking, at the institute, on the issue of “tuberculosis in children-problems and solution”.

Director of the institute, Dr Zeenat Issani, and social worker Jimmy Engineer also attended the event.

Dr Afaq said that in 1990 22% of the country’s population stood below the poverty line, while in 2001 the figure had risen to 32 %.

“These figures clearly show that during the last decade, every year we added one percent of the country’s population to those already below the poverty line.

Against this backdrop TB has emerged as a major threat to the lives of a large number of minors,” he said.

He said that the underprivileged children must be provided free of charge medicines by government hospitals enabling them to mitigate their suffering.

He said that the sale of anti-TB drugs, specially Syrup Rifampicin, being sold at medical outlets without prescription by competent doctors, should immediately be banned.

Dr Afaq pointed out that out of the 401 TB patients registered at the NICH the previous year, 58 % were un-immunized. Forty-two percent of the vaccinated patients had advanced T.B.

He said that 90% of the doctors in the country did not know how to diagnose TB in children and that had aggravated the problem.

Speaking on the occasion, director NICH, Dr Zeenat Issani, said that children acquired TB from adults, so every child suffering from TB indicated that there were some adults in their surroundings suffering from the same disease; they should be surveyed and treated.—PPI