Undiagnosed TB patients: expert rings alarm bells

Islamabad
The Institute of Health & Management Sciences, Islamabad, conducted a one-day training workshop on ‘Tuberculosis: A Public Health Perspective’.
The objective of the workshop was to make postgraduate students and researchers aware about the severity of tuberculosis in Pakistan and discuss strategies which may be applied in order to prevent the devastating disease.
The resource person for the workshop, Dr. Adeel Tahir, programme officer at the National TB Control Programme, stated that Pakistan is ranked 5th in the world among top 22 worst-hit countries with regard to prevalence of tuberculosis. He stated that a large proportion of TB patients in Pakistan still remains undiagnosed which is extremely alarming.
The chief guest on the occasion was Dr. Hafeez Ahmad Memon, deputy registrar at the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Islamabad. In the concluding session of the workshop, Dr. Hafeez Ahmad Memon laid strong emphasis on the need for conducting such training workshops more frequently so that ample awareness could be created among public health practitioners regarding grave issues such as TB. While appreciating the endeavours of the Institute of Health & Management Sciences, Islamabad, he mentioned that the university is willing to extend full support to all of its affiliated institutes.
The training workshop was attended by more than 30 students and faculty members. In the end, participation certificates were distributed among participants.
The Institute of Health & Management Sciences is currently conducting Master of Science in Public Health and Doctor of Physical Therapy programme in affiliation with Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University. The sole aim of the institute is to make the health status of the Pakistani population better and improve the quality of life of common people by producing qualified and competent public health practitioners.