TB Day today

Islamabad : Like other parts of the globe, World Tuberculosis (TB) Day will also be observed in Pakistan today (Sunday) to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences and to step up efforts to end the disease epidemic.

Pakistan ranks four among countries with high incident cases of multi-drug drug resistant TB as estimated 27,000 new cases are reported every year.

Total TB cases incidence rate per year is 525,000 in Pakistan while the figure of TB cases under treatment is 368,589. As many as 160,000 patients are missed from treatment while 56,000 deaths are occurred due to TB in Pakistan every year.

National Coordinator TB Control Programme Brig Aamir Ikram said that 1571 microscopy centers have been working in the country.

He added TB treatment success rate is 93 per cent.

He said that the government has paid special attention to this critical issue and strengthened the program for providing a free treatment to TB patients.

He said that more than three hundred thousand TB patients are benefitting from free diagnostic and treatment facilities every year in Pakistan.