Human rights of TB patients to be protected

Islamabad : The government will increase its health budget in more rational terms, emphasizing on all elements of primary healthcare including preventive programmes and overall health systems strengthening. Moreover, the human rights of TB patients will be protected and a cross-sectoral approach will be adopted to avoid fragmented interventions and to promote synergy among various sectors relevant to health and development.

The Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services Dr. Nausheen Hamid made this announcement at a workshop titled ‘TB Care is My Right’ here on Wednesday. Organized by the Stop TB Partnership and the Dopasi Foundation, the event was also addressed by Dr. Amir Ikram, Executive Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Coordinator of the Common Management Unit for AIDS, TB and Malaria; as well as Senior Adviser of the Stop TB Partnership Dr. Syed Karam Shah.

Dr. Karam Shah referred to the increasing recognition of public health and human rights as being complementary and mutually reinforcing approaches to human well-being. “However, the potential of human rights to contribute to advancing global health objectives such as TB treatment and cure has only recently begun to be explored,” he added, linking his observation to Wednesday’s workshop, which aims to heighten interest in exploring human rights as a potentially useful avenue for public health workers to tackle the challenges posed by TB—one of the world’s biggest killers.

Dr. Karam Shah recognized that in health research, human rights have implications for decisions on how data is collected, and if disaggregated by age, sex and locality, it can directly influence policies and programmes while detecting discrimination and taking remedial action. “Globally, TB is the greatest single infectious cause of death in young women; while fewer women than men are diagnosed with TB, a greater percentage of women die of it and the stigma attached to having TB falls far more heavily on women,” he went on to say.

Speaking as chief guest, Nausheen Hamid assured that Pakistan will take all possible measures and utilize available resources to implement the declaration issued at the United Nations’ High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis Control in order to end TB in Pakistan by 2030, and in this context, called for a multi-sectoral framework for the control of Tuberculosis right till the grassroots level in all provinces with the support of the District Administrations. She thanked The Global Fund, WHO, and all other health development partners for their support to the provincial TB control programmes and requested all related sectors to join hands in a serious effort to end TB through the newly-devised strategic plan.

Nausheen said, the government is engaged in across-the-board intrinsic action to make governmental organisations publicly accountable for their actions in planning and prioritizing pragmatic public health policies that facilitate the attainment of universal health coverage and prevent the further spread of TB. She also called for addressing TB and HIV together in light of the human rights’ dimension, and looked forward to actively working in tandem with the Ministry of Human Rights.

Earlier, Brig. Dr. Amir Ikram pointed out the need to support an end to stigma and all forms of discrimination by removing discriminatory laws, policies and programmes against people with TB, and to protect human rights and dignity. He hoped that by recognizing the various socio-cultural barriers to TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment services, especially for those who are vulnerable, the managers would develop integrated, people-centred, gender-responsive health services based on human rights.