MANSEHRA: The district head of TB Control Programme, Dr Mohammad Javed Tanoli, has said that 50,000 cases of tuberculosis are reported every year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said that they were sensitising the key segments of society including religious scholars, workers of non-governmental organisations and journalists about tuberculosis to bring down its cases in the province.

“We have held TB sensitising sessions with clerics, students of seminaries and representatives of media and non-government organisations to bring down the 50,000 cases of this communicable disease being reported in the province every year,” Dr Tanoli told journalists here on Wednesday.

Communication officer of TB Control Progamme Bushar and district health officer Sardar Bashir also spoke on the occasion and stressed the need for making joint efforts to eradicate the disease form the province.

Dr Tanoli said that under TB Control Programme, patients were provided free of cost treatment since the first test of sputum.

“But owing to lack of awareness regarding symptoms and free of cost six-month treatment course, the disease is spreading in the community,” he added.

Dr Tanoli said that media, ulema and NGOs could play vital role in not only creating awareness among people about the free treatment of the disease but also regarding the precautionary measure.

He said that currently 670,000 cases of the communicable disease were reported in the country every year of which 50,000 were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Dr Tanoli said that government alone couldn’t achieve the target of eradicating the disease if every segment of the society didn’t play proactive role in the mission.

He said that 16 health facilities in public and five in private sector were being run in the district under TB Control Progamme to provide diagnostic and treatment services to the patients.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Bushar said that ulema, journalists and NGOs could play a vital role in creating awareness regarding tuberculosis among the people.

Those patients, who were not regular in six-month direct observed short course, could fall in multiple drugs resistance (MDR) stage which was fatal and needed costly treatment.

Mr Bushar said that MDR laboratory testing facilities, which were earlier available in Karachi, were extended to seven tertiary hospitals in five districts including Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Abbottabad and Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“So far 350 cases of MDR are registered across the province including seven from Mansehra district. The patients are being provided with free of cost health services but they should be cautious of their disease otherwise they can face the second stage of MRD,” he said.

Mr Bushar said that people believed that tuberculosis was a disease of poor but it still prevailed in Europe and other developed countries around the globe.

He also urged journalists to remove misconception regarding tuberculosis as people suffering from the communicable disease should not be discriminated against.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2014