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Effective TB

control strategy

underscored

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Barrister Shahida Jamil, has called for concerted efforts to eradicate tuberculosis from the country.

"Our country ranks 5th regarding TB cases in the world and around 350,000 people are inflicted every year", the minister observed while speaking, as the chief guest, at the inaugural ceremony of an international conference on tuberculosis and lung diseases at a hotel here on Sunday night.

The minister stressed the need of chalking out an effective TB control strategy and assured the government's support towards this end.

She informed the participants of the moot that the government was very keen on these issues.

Shahida regretted that there was a lack of understanding as to what TB is all about.

She was of the view that something wrong appears to be with the medical education which is needed to be upgraded.

The minister emphasised that we should work in partnership to carry forward the task of elimination of TB and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should also play their due role in this respect.

On the occasion she also shed light on the harmful effects of cigarette smoking.

In his speech, the WHO representative to Pakistan, Mohammed Abide Jam, said that some one dies of tuberculosis every 10 seconds although almost everyone could have or should have been cured.

Eight million people develop TB every year around the globe and each one of them can infect between 10 and 15 people in one year. Up to 50 million people may be infected with drug resistant TB.

Jam said that TB is also an economic loss and according to the recent studies in Asian countries, the loss to the economy on account of TB is equivalent to an estimated four to seven percent of gross domestic product.

"These facts are not acceptable to anybody in the world. We should not have started the new millennium with such a frightening situations", he remarked.

The WHO representative said that Pakistan has the 5th highest burden of TB in the world and accounts for 44 percent of the TB burden in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. Every year around 350,000 people develop tuberculosis in Pakistan. Most of these cases are under 45 years of age.

He was of the view that despite the fact of high burden of tuberculosis, TB control has a low priority. The national TB programme has suffered from insufficient financial support, weak technical leadership and limited collaboration with all partners Ñ public and private Ñ in TB control. The central unit, a fundamental requirement for operation of a TB control programme in a country, is still weak.

Jam opined that in order to adequately address the enormous problem of tuberculosis, a comprehensive effort is needed. It requires the action oriented political commitment of the government.

He also called for encouraging the civil society in the efforts to stop TB.

"Let us start the new millennium with our strong commitment to stop tuberculosis with all partners on board", the WHO representative remarked.

He was sure that this moot will provide the opportunity to seriously discuss the establishment of an effective partnership between public and private sectors for the control of TB in Pakistan.

President of Pakistan Chest Society, Dr Arshad Javed, said that efforts be geared up for the control of TB.

Dr Ashraf Sadique, Dr Ghazala Ansari and Dr Nadeem Rizvi also spoke on the occasion.ÑAPP