Over 27,000 new TB cases reported every year in country

Islamabad: The number of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) was increasing in Pakistan as estimated 27,000 new cases were being reported every year in the country. According to an official of National TB Control Programme, total TB cases incidence rate per year is 525,000 in Pakistan while the figure of TB cases under treatment is 368,589.

Sharing the official available data, he said that as many as 160,000 patients were missed from treatment while 56,000 deaths were occurred due to TB in Pakistan every year. The official said that 1,571 microscopy centres have been working in the country. He added TB treatment success rate was 93 per cent. He said that the government had paid special attention to this critical issue and strengthened the programme for providing a free treatment to TB patients.

He said that more than three hundred thousand TB patients were benefiting free diagnostic and treatment facilities every year in Pakistan. He said that more than 30 hospitals had been upgraded to take care of multi-drug resistant TB cases and 13 laboratories equipped with state of the art facilities were being established in various parts of the country.

He said that the government was committed to achieve the target of eliminating the disease from the country and sought support of all stakeholders in this regard. He said that the government had planned several activities to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences and to step up efforts to end the disease epidemic.

He said that it was in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease. Each day, nearly 4,500 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease, he added. He said that global efforts to combat TB had saved an estimated 54 million lives since the year 2,000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 42 per cent.