Breathe easy: 50,000 people get sick with TB every year

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that spreads through the bloodstream.

PESHAWAR: More than 50,000 people are diagnosed with tuberculosis every year in K-P, said Dr Obaid Hussain, project director of the TB Control Programme.

Speaking at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, Dr Hussain said Pakistan ranks fourth on the list of high burden TB countries. He said that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) observes World TB Day in the province every year in March to create awareness about the disease.

He added that the ‘Stop TB Strategy’ continues to be implemented by the provincial TB control programme. “In 2013, the programme registered 38,803 patients with a 94% treatment success rate,” he said. The doctor added that quality assured anti-TB drugs and diagnostic facilities were provided free of cost. Since its inception in 2002, the programme has registered and treated approximately 331,969 patients till December 2013.

They are in the process of constructing a Bio Safety Level-III Laboratory at Hayatabad Medical Complex.

“The laboratory will have advanced diagnostic facilities with wide range of tests, including Drug Susceptibility Testing which determines the ability of the four primary antituberculer drugs to inhibit growth of tuberculosis. The other test they will be able to perform at the laboratory will be culture and diagnosis through GeneXpert, a cartridge-based, automated diagnostic test that can identify the disease.

K-P is ahead of other provinces in the country where functionalising 10 GeneXpert sites is concerned, and sample transportation mechanism to these sites is ensured through OSC.

At hospitals such as Lady Reading Hospital, Ayub Teaching Hospital in Abbottabad, Mufti Mahmood Memorial Teaching Hospital in DI Khan, Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant TB has been initiated. Patients registered with the multidrug-resistant TB programme are supported by the Global Fund while 200 others are enrolled through EPOS Health Management, including Second Line Anti-TB Drugs and Social Support.

The Public Private Mix (PPM) programme is extended to 15 districts of the province with support of the German Development Bank (EPOS Health Management) and Mercy Corps through its partners. A total of 170 private practitioners are trained and 40 laboratories for Sputum Smear Microscopy are integrated into PPM, which has produced encouraging results in terms of 20% contribution to the total Case Detection Rate (CDR) of the province in 2013.

Feeling under the weather?

Tuberculosis or TB is a bacterial infection that can spread through the bloodstream and lymph nodes to any organ in the body and is most commonly found in the lungs.

According to the UK’s National Health Service the symptoms include:

A cough for more than three weeks which brings up phlegm which may be bloody

Breathlessness

Lack of appetite

Fever

Night sweats

Fatigue

Pain in the chest

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2014.