40,000 die from TB in country every year, says report

LAHORE: World Tuberculosis (TB) Day was observed here and across the country like many other countries around the globe on Sunday with a renewed pledge to raise awareness about the disease to make Pakistan a healthy society.

In Pakistan too, tuberculosis (TB) takes thousands of lives every year. TB is considered to be the second deadliest infectious disease in the world after corona, however, TB is curable. To mark the day‚ different seminars, walks, awareness camps and other activities were organised by various governmental and non-government organisations according to the data of National TB programme, around six lakh cases are reported in Pakistan every year, of which at least 27,000 are reported to be multi-drug resistant types while around 40,000 patients die from the infection. The data further reveals that about 400,000 TB patients in Pakistan benefit from free diagnosis and treatment facilities every year and there are more than 1,603 modern laboratories equipped with health facilities in all provinces to deal with the menace of TB. To create awareness among the masses about the disease, world TB Day is marked on March 24 every year, which kills seven million people every year.