The public sector spending on tuberculosis (TB) control has exceeded to Rs one billion, said Khushnood Lashari, Secretary Health, in a press conference held here on Tuesday.
Anna Cataldi, United Nation Ambassador of Peace and the 'Global Stop TB' partnership in Islamabad, Major General Shahida Malik (Retd), Director General Health, Dr Khalif Bile Muhammad, representative World Health Organisation (WHO) and Dr Hassan Sadiq, National Manager of TB control programme were also present on the occasion.
He said that Rs six billion is the overall investment to control TB in the country. The government is giving top priority to control communicable diseases especially TB as Pakistan is ranked 8th among the 22 high burden countries in the world, he said.
The speakers informed the media that about 250,000 cases of TB are detected annually in Pakistan, and approximately 60,000 people die every year. Speaking on the occasion, Khalif Bile said that Pakistan is one of the few countries where TB diagnosis is free.
"Pakistan has a low HIV prevalence among the general population. It seems that we are running against the time to control TB. However, it is the time to speed up the activities to control the spread of TB and no doubt a number of opportunities exists", he said.
Hassan Sadiq, addressing the participants, said that Pakistan carries 50 percent of TB burden in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Around 15-20 percent of TB patients are not treated. However, National TB Control Programme has successfully treated 800,000 patients and is progressively moving towards attaining Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set for TB.
NTCP with its provincial programmes has established 5,000 diagnostic centres and free of cost facilities. Anna Cataldi said that TB is a curable disease. In Pakistan, living in poor hygienic condition and low socio-economic condition has badly affected the health conditions of the masses adding new patients of this disease.
She said that the toll of suffering could be drastically reduced if partnerships are built among governments, media, private sectors and civil society. "TB is a global epidemic and millions are affected. It is time that we all should get together and apply collective wisdom to end the miseries suffering humanity", she said. In terms of meeting the MDG target of TB, there is a need to contextualise current progress as Pakistan lags behind achieving them.
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