TB cases on the rise in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, 16th Apr, 2019: The number of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) is increasing in Pakistan as estimated 27,000 new cases are reported every year in the country.
According to available official data, total TB cases incidence rate per year is 525,000 in Pakistan while the figure of TB cases under treatment is 368,589.
As many as 160,000 patients are missed from treatment while 56,000 deaths are occurred due to TB in Pakistan every year.
National Coordinator TB Control Programme Brig. Aamir Ikram said 1,571 microscopy centers have been working in the country as the TB treatment success rate was 93 percent.
He said the government has paid special attention to the critical issue and strengthened the programme for providing free treatment to the TB patients.
He said more than 300,000 TB patients were benefiting from free diagnostic and treatment facilities every year in Pakistan.
He said over 30 hospitals have been upgraded to take care of multi-drug resistant TB cases and 13 laboratories equipped with state of the art facilities were being established in various parts of the country.
He said the government was committed to achieve the target of eliminating the disease from the country and sought support of all the stakeholders in that regard.
He said the government has planned several activities to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences, and step up efforts to end the epidemic disease.
He said it was in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he has discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing the disease.
He added that every year TB day was celebrated on the urgency to act on the commitments made by global leaders to control the disease.
He said TB remained the world's deadliest infectious killer. Each day, nearly 4500 people lost their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fell ill with the preventable and curable disease, he added.
He said global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 54 million lives since the year 2000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 42 percent.
He added to accelerate the TB response in countries to reach targets heads of state came together and made strong commitments to end TB at the first-ever UN High-Level Meeting in September 2018.
Source: UrduPoint
