TB affects 500,000 people in Pakistan annually
The country is the fifth-most affected nation by the respiratory disease
PHOTO: AFP
KARACHI:
According to an estimate by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 250 people out of every 100,000 are infected by the tuberculosis, affecting 500,000 people every year, said Pakistan Chest Society president Prof Nisar Ahmad Rao.
Speaking to doctors during a small plantation campaign on World Tuberculosis Day at the Dow University of Health Sciences subsidiary Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases (OICD) on Wednesday, he said that Pakistan was still the fifth most affected country out of 30 TB-hit countries, mainly because of person-to-person transmission.
He stated that the programmes scheduled for World TB Day had to be called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, a small plantation drive was hosted by them to create a healthier environment.
"We are making attempts to create awareness about the disease," he said, adding that they had displayed banners across OICD to serve the purpose.
Prof Rao, who is also the OICD director, stated that the Sindh government's Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) Programme, which was launched in 2000, had helped control TB, as the number of TB cases was decreasing and the recovery rate was improving.
He added that the efforts to eradicate TB from the country had resulted in a decline in the number of patients, but there was much work to be done.
He said that the global target was to eliminate respiratory disease from the world by 2030.
Globally, the efforts of health experts saved the lives of as many as 58 million people from TB between 2000 and 2018.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2020.
According to an estimate by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 250 people out of every 100,000 are infected by the tuberculosis, affecting 500,000 people every year, said Pakistan Chest Society president Prof Nisar Ahmad Rao.
Speaking to doctors during a small plantation campaign on World Tuberculosis Day at the Dow University of Health Sciences subsidiary Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases (OICD) on Wednesday, he said that Pakistan was still the fifth most affected country out of 30 TB-hit countries, mainly because of person-to-person transmission.
He stated that the programmes scheduled for World TB Day had to be called off due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, a small plantation drive was hosted by them to create a healthier environment.
"We are making attempts to create awareness about the disease," he said, adding that they had displayed banners across OICD to serve the purpose.
Prof Rao, who is also the OICD director, stated that the Sindh government's Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) Programme, which was launched in 2000, had helped control TB, as the number of TB cases was decreasing and the recovery rate was improving.
He added that the efforts to eradicate TB from the country had resulted in a decline in the number of patients, but there was much work to be done.
He said that the global target was to eliminate respiratory disease from the world by 2030.
Globally, the efforts of health experts saved the lives of as many as 58 million people from TB between 2000 and 2018.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2020.