Stakeholders urged to create awareness regarding tuberculosis

Balochistan Director General (DG) Health Dr Noor Qazi has urged stakeholders, civil society members and general public to play their due role in enhancing awareness regarding Tuberculosis (TB) in a bid to prevent it from spreading

“TB is not an incurable disease but in spite of all this, it has become a dangerous disease which has resulted in deaths,” Qazi said while addressing a seminar on World TB Day organised by the health sector at a local hotel.

He mentioned that as per the World Health Organization (WHO) figures, 259 people per 100,000 might be infected with TB annually. “More than 35,000 people out of 12.1 million population in Balochistan might be infected with TB.”

He said awareness regarding TB among people was essential in the area while in this regard, every member of the civil society and stakeholders should play their due role in creating awareness about the disease in the area.

The DG maintained that March 24 was celebrated as World Tuberculosis Day, saying that on this day, various events are organised all over the world to raise awareness regarding the disease.

“Although TB is not an incurable disease, it has become a dangerous disease that kills more people than AIDS and malaria, and TB patients spend most of their lives in distress and anxiety,” he said, adding that when a TB patient coughs, the TB bacteria in his mucus is transmitted to another person through air and thus another TB patient is born.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2022.