Awareness: Removing stigmas affiliated with TB
Health experts at a seminar called on the media to create awareness about tuberculosis (TB) being curable and preventable and stressed the need to remove the stigma attached to it.
The seminar was organised by the Association for Community Development in collaboration with the National TB Control Programme at Peshawar Press Club on Monday.
Health experts called the TB situation in Pakistan precarious, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where more than 34,000 cases were registered in 2009, 6,500 of those in Peshawar District.
Regional TB programme coordinator Dr Faisal Siraj said that TB’s treatment takes eight months, while adding that social taboos affiliated with the disease are a major cause for the disease’s prevalence. Dr Siraj said patients should consult the nearest TB control centre without any hesitation.
He added that the youth form a high share of the patients as one out of every four patients belongs to younger age groups.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 13th, 2011.
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