ISLAMABAD: As many as 611,000 people have fallen ill due to tuberculosis (TB) in Pakistan over the past two years whereas 48,000 HIV-negative and 2,100 HIV-positive people died due to TB in the country but only 55pc of the cases were notified.

Vice chair of Stop TB Pakistan Dr Sharaf Ali Shah said this while speaking to participants of a seminar held on Monday.

According to a statement released on Monday, the event was organised by Stop TB Partnership Pakistan in collaboration with the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) and Pfizer Pakistan.

Highlighting the reasons for low TB case notification, Dr Shah said that poor understanding of TB and its symptoms (lack of awareness), poor knowledge about where to seek care and misconceptions around anti-TB drug availability at public sector health facilities, cost of transportation and loss of daily wages were some of the main factors.

It is worth mentioning that every year, Stop TB Partnership and its partners unite to raise public awareness of the devastating health, social and economic impacts of TB and call for an end to the epidemic.

Provincial adviser says HIV-infected persons at increased risk of acquiring TB

Throwing light on HIV TB co-infection, Dr Afshan Isani, provincial TB adviser CDC Sindh, said that tuberculosis and HIV, both infections facilitate each other.

“HIV-infected persons are at increased risk of acquiring TB and management of TB HIV co-infected cases is more challenging. The number of new HIV cases is increasing every year. In 2022, about 30,000 new HIV cases were registered in the country,” she said.

Dr Salim Kazmi, senior technical adviser CDC, said that globally a lot is being done to implement the strategy that aims to end TB. Some recent developments include reducing the duration of treatment for sensitive TB in certain cases to four months and for drug-resistant TB to six months.

It is worth mentioning that multi drug resistant (MDR) TB is the one which grows when patients stop taking medicines without completion of course. The virus becomes so strong that the cost of treatment increases tenfold.

Dr Karam Shah, senior adviser, Stop TB Pakistan said that there was an urgent need to engage policymakers at district, provincial and federal levels to promote political commitment, to declare TB as a health priority and to allocate adequate domestic funding.

He added that different strategies could be used, including a parliamentary caucus and involvement of electronic, print, and social media.

He highlighted that according to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2022, total available funding for TB in Pakistan in 2021 was $47 million, out of which domestic funding was only 8pc while 92pc of the total funding came through international donors (mainly through Global Fund to Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria).

“Besides low allocation of domestic funds, timely release of funds without cuts and proper utilisation of allocated funds are common issues. Total dependence on international funding raises serious concerns about the sustainability of TB control services,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2023