‘Govt aiming to eradicate TB by 2015’

Tuberculosis affects around 300,000 people in Pakistan every year

LAHORE:

The government has launched several projects with help from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to try and curb tuberculosis, which affects around 300,000 people in Pakistan every year, said District Health Officer Dr Iqbal Niazi.

Speaking at a workshop about the disease, he said the government aimed to make Pakistan a TB-free country by 2015. He said a hundred centres had been set up in Punjab to provide free treatment for TB.

He said that the best way to treat TB patients was through the directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS) method, under which doctors monitored patients directly. He said government departments, doctors and the public would have to work together to achieve the goal of eliminating the disease from Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2011.