The Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan (AKHS,P) has entered into a major public-private partnership to provide access to tuberculosis control programme to 1.5 million patients using "Directly Observed Treatment Short" (DOTS) course strategy.
AKHS,P has initiated the programme in collaboration with the National TB Control Programme (NTP) and Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan (AKF,P) and has been funded by Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) with an aim to reduce the morbidity and mortality of TB from the country.
With annual 250,000 cases of TB reported in the country, it is imminent that drastic steps should be taken to reduce the burden of TB disease, Dr Waseem Khan, National TB Programme Co-ordinator for AKHS,P, said.
The Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan has offered 72 of its services situated across the country to provide TB diagnostic and treatment facility.
These facilities will offer diagnosis and management through DOTS to the TB patients.
The National TB Control Programme (NTP) and respective Provincial TB Control Programmes (PTP) are leading the capacity building strategy for implementing tuberculosis diagnosis, management and treatment according to the national tuberculosis guidelines.
Dr Waseem said that AKHS,P has played a key role in launching this initiative in Karachi, rural Sindh and Punjab.
Around 200 first level health care providers trained under this programme would enable AKHS,P to assist NTP in achieving its national targets of case detection and cure rate for TB DOTS, he added.
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