KARACHI, March 24: WHO national programme officer in Sindh on TB control Dr. Amanullah Ansari has observed that diagnostic and treatment facilities are not accessible to patients at peripheral level in Pakistan while poor compliance to treatment and inadequate treatment regimens is a major problem to control this disease.
He was speaking at a seminar on "TB: Why the scourge has lingered on for so long?", organized by Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), here on Wednesday. He said that 100 per cent effective anti-TB drugs are available for last 50 years, but this problem had been lingering on due to lack of supervision, non-existence of an information management system and misguided policies for health sector reforms, neglecting the peripheral health services.
Mr. Ansari informed that DOTS method of treatment was the best weapon in the fight to stop TB and we could overcome this disease by assuring five components of DOTS i.e. uninterrupted supply of quality drugs, standardized SCC, including directly observed treatment, access to quality assured microscopy, sustained commitment at all levels and recording and reporting a TB register.
He said that 1,500 doctors, 1,207 paramedics, 251 lab technicians and all LHWs have been trained for treatment of TB patients and the said directory of diagnostic and treatment centres in the remaining districts of Sindh was under way.
"We can double our efforts by involving NGOs, welfare clinics, family physicians and TB patients in overcoming social stigma of TB", he said. Dr Nadeem Rizvi, head of chest medicines department, Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre, spoke about the financial problems faced by TB patients, and said an adult with TB loses an average of three to four months of work time resulting in an average loss of potential earnings of 20 to 30 per cent of annual household income.
For the families of those that die of the disease, there is further loss of about 15 years of income because of the premature death, he added. He said that the duration of illness is 127 days and a number of patients become unemployed after this disease.
He said that the virus (MTB) causing TB was detected first time in the world by Sir Robert Koch in March 24, 1882, and the day is observed as world TB day. About the attitude of family physicians towards TB, he said that only 21 per cent of them consider TB as a serious problem, 38 per cent depend on sputum examination for diagnosis of TB, only 7.3 per cent are able to write the correct contents and dosage of medicines prescribed by them according to study done by JPMC.
He demanded that TB control programme be given priority and a TB task force be set up in each medical college, ensuring proper training of doctors on TB control. Director-cum-chest specialist, Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, Dr. Ashraf Sadiq, said that bad treatment practices have actually increased the TB burden and all the treating physicians should strictly follow national TB guidelines and treatment must not stop until the course has been completed.
TB treatment should always be supervised and substandard drugs should not be used, he cautioned. District Officer (DO) Health, Karachi, Dr. Nazeer Ahmed Kolachi informed the participants about the measures being taken by the City Government to check TB. Lecturer, Faculty of Eastern Medicine, Hamdard University Hakim Dr. Rais Khan, spoke about herbal treatment to TB patients. -PPI