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Tuesday March 19, 2024

20 KP districts providing TB diagnostic, treatment facilities

By Bureau report
March 25, 2018

PESHAWAR: Health experts in 20 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with skilled paramedics are providing diagnostic and treatment facilities to the patients suffering from tuberculosis.

According to a report, there are 45,000 registered tuberculosis patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Of the estimated 60,000 patients yearly, about 45,000 are enrolled but about 15,000 remain hidden and untreated because of the non-cooperative attitude of the private health practitioners.

The report said that wrong or misdiagnosis of TB led to multi-drug-resistance (MDR).

At present, out of the estimated 1,200 MDR cases, about 325 were registered yearly whereas 450 patients were under treatment.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, MDR treatment centres have been established at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) in Peshawar and the district headquarters hospitals in Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Abbottabad and Mardan.

The diagnostic setup in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is unique as drug sensitivity, culture and gene-expert and operational research is carried out.

It may be mentioned that World TB Day is marked on March 24 each year to build public awareness about tuberculosis and accelerate efforts to eliminate the disease.

At present, an estimated one-third of the world’s population has been infected with tuberculosis, and new infections occur at a rate of one per second.

About 0.35 million of deaths from TB are also associated with other infections as co-infection with HIV.

Terming it an epidemic, most countries of the world, mostly developing countries, it causes about 1.8 million deaths yearly.

In 2015 alone, 1.8 million out of 10.4 million people across the world died of the disease. In Pakistan, the number of deaths due to TB is about 65,000.

Although Dr Robert Koch discovered the bacterium, the TB bacillus, in 1882, opening the way towards diagnosing and curing TB yet the present world never controlled the menace of TB since then. However, a great headway has been made among the developed countries.

Globally tuberculosis is the second most common cause of death from infectious disease (after HIV).

The distribution of tuberculosis is not uniform across the globe; about 80 percent of the population in many African, Caribbean, south Asian, and eastern European countries test positive in tuberculin tests, while only 5–10 percent of the US population test positive.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2000-2015, India’s estimated mortality rate dropped from 55 to 36 per 100000 population per year, with an estimated 480,000 people dying of TB in 2015. In developed countries, tuberculosis is less common and is mainly an urban disease.

Improvements in public health were reducing tuberculosis even before the arrival of antibiotics, although the disease remained a significant threat to public health.

Pakistan carries the 5th largest burden of the disease in the world.

The incidence of TB varies with age. TB primarily affects adolescents and young adults. And mainly the immuno-compromised people, especially the poor section of population and malnourished people backed by low hygienic environment.

The incidence may also be related to seasonal variations, with peaks occurring every spring/summer. The reasons for this are unclear, but may also be related to vitamin D deficiency during the winter.

In Pakistan, an estimated 0.5m with 368,000 are registered yearly whereas in the estimated yearly number is 60,000 out of which about 45000 are registered. The incidence rate is 270/100,000 and Prevalence 340/100,000.

The Global Fund for HIV, TB & Malaria is providing 70 percent medicine next year followed by 50 percent the following year, necessitating the Government of Pakistan and the all provinces to focus on allocations for the control of TB. The slogan of 2018 is: “Wanted: Leaders for a TB-Free World”.