Pakistan ranks 6th among 22 high burden TB countries
According to available data, the incidence of TB per 100,000 in Pakistan is 181, case notification per 100,000 per year is 150 while the treatment success rate is 85 percent.
An estimated one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with TB due to which WHO is working on its plan to cut TB prevalence rates and deaths to half by 2015.
More than 700,000 TB patients were treated free of cost while 100% coverage of WHO-recommended treatment strategy for detection and cure known as Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) is achieved in Pakistan, official sources said.
The government has set up 982 microscopy centres throughout the country to provide free of cost diagnostic facility of TB, official sources said. They said external quality assurance for sputum microscopy is implemented in 40 districts of the country while five reference laboratories have been established, one at federal level and one each at provincial level.
Dr Wasim Khawja of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences(PIMS) said that TB is an infectious bacterial disease caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs. He added the disease is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with active respiratory disease.
Khawja also said that the infection with mycobacterium tuberculosis often causes no symptoms in healthy people, since the person’s immune system prevents bacteria from spreading.
He said the symptoms of active TB are coughing, sometimes with sputum or blood, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats. He further added that TB is treatable with a six-month course of antibiotics.
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@andleeb: "The writer is being influenced by western propaganda to put Islam down, while the truth is that Islam now has nuclear weapons and is in no way inferior to the Caucasians."
Nuclear weapons have no relevance to TB.
Pakistan is one of the 22 countries listed. This does not make this article anti-Islam, Brazil, China, Vietnam, Inida, Philippines are also listed.
If WHO is trying to reduce prevalence of TB - that is a GOOD thing not a bad thing. DO not look for conspiracy theories everywhere.
The #1 country in bad hygiene is UK (read article which shows that 87% of English people don't wash hands after toilet and have feces on their hands all the time) So, whats the point of this article? OK, we have TB and they don't wash hands after going to the toilet. So?
The ranking referred in this article is based on absolute number of cases which would be naturally higher for highly populated countries like India or Pakistan. From a number of cases per 100,000 population, Pakistan would be 18th out of 22 with 181 cases out of 100,000 and India would be 20th out of 22 with 168 cases out of 100,000. SO the number 6 for Pakistan is somewhat misleading. Here are the numbers Here is the url with the numbers: http://www.tbdots.com/site/en/doctorsectiontbhighburden_countries.html In terms of cases per 100,000 population: Countries better than India : Brazil , China Countries better than Pakistan : Brazil, China, Vietnam, India.
@antanu: "Why don’t provide a list of all 22 countries with their rankings.I believe Pakistan is better off than its neighbors (?)…Had it scored below India…ET would have definitely yelling on top of its voice." SO clearly you are looking for news that potentially might make India look bad. Yet you pretend to be Indian?
Is this report trying to deny that there is no TB in USA? As a matter of fact, the largest amount of drug resistant TB is mostly in the white population. The writer is being influenced by western propaganda to put Islam down, while the truth is that Islam now has nuclear weapons and is in no way inferior to the Caucasians. On a person to person basis, there is more AIDS related TB just in USA than in entire Pakistan. The writer is looking at a country to country ratio, while the population statistics (on a race basis, especially if you look at the AIDS related resistant TB in the anglo-saxon race) tells a different story.
@anatanu We can only have pity at people like you.
antanu - I don't this it makes much sense to compare only within neighbours and forget the problems as long as we are in a relatively better position than the neighbour. We need to take into consideration the position with respect to global scale and also the degree of severity and impact to the population.
For starters, get rid of the abnoxious Paan spitting habit in public and on public property . . and stop promoting Paan (beetle leaf) chewing habits. The more they spit, the more deseases will be airborne and spread to young and old alike. Absolutely do not spend country's resources in importing Paan from any where in the world for the sake of public health!! Above and beyond, the government has tremendous responsibility in this respect.
Why don't provide a list of all 22 countries with their rankings.I believe Pakistan is better off than its neighbors (?)...Had it scored below India...ET would have definitely yelling on top of its voice.