Combating disease: Pak among leading TB burden countries

Pakistan ranks 6th in WHO report for world's 22 high tuberculosis burden countries.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ranks 6th among the world’s 22 high tuberculosis (TB) burden countries, contributing up to 43 per cent of the disease in the Eastern-Mediterranean region, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

As per available data, the incidence of TB per 100,000 in Pakistan is 181, while the treatment success rate is 85 per cent. An estimated one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with TB due to which WHO is working on a plan to curb TB prevalence rates and deaths by half by 2015.

The government of Pakistan has set up 982 microscopy centres throughout the country to provide free of cost diagnostic facility, official sources said. More than 700,000 TB patients are treated free of cost while 100 per cent coverage of WHO recommended treatment strategy for detection and cure is implemented in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th,  2011.