The TB scourge

Unless the government releases the funding, there is a real risk that National TB Control Programme will collapse.

Considering the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in Pakistan, it is shocking to learn that the National TB Control Programme receives not one rupee of government money and is entirely donor-funded. The government, for reasons beyond reason, has not released the Rs44 million it is holding and 37 employees of the programme have not received their salaries for two years. The director of the programme has said he is worried about its future, and well he might be. The $129 million from donors is being used to pay for treatment and staff training but there is no money to pay many of the staff working on the programme, who continue to do their duties despite being unpaid. National TB Day passed with little fanfare.

At least 420,000 people are diagnosed with TB in Pakistan every year and out of that number, 120,000 do not get the appropriate treatment. In Islamabad, around 900 are getting treatment at a leading hospital, but the picture for the rest of the country is poor. The disease is spread by droplet dispersal and the living conditions of many poor families are such that transmission is alarmingly simple. An indication of the scale of the problem has been given by the Minister of State for Health Services, who said that Pakistan has the fifth highest incidence of TB in the world and the government is running 18 treatment centres across the country that see 3,140 patients. This is a drop in the ocean when laid alongside the numbers contracting TB every year. Despite this, the government is sitting on the money that is there to pay those who work on control and prevention, making something of a mockery of government claims to be committed to fighting the disease. Unless the government releases the funding, there is a real risk that this crucial national programme will collapse. With 329 out of every 100,000 of the population infected, such a collapse would be a national scandal. That must not happen.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2014.

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