Tuberculosis (TB) is the single biggest infectious killer of women, as over 900 million women, mainly between the ages of 15-44 years, are infected with TB world-wide, out of whom one million will die and 2.5 million will get sick this year.
This was revealed by speakers in the 23rd International Conference on Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, held with the theme of 'Stop TB-Lung health for All' here on Monday. Pakistan Anti-TB Association in collaboration with Pakistan TB Control Programme and Pakistan Chest Society organised the moot.
Principal, King Edward Medical College, Professor Dr Mumtaz Hasan was the chief guest at the inaugural session of the moot.
About 200 foreign delegates from 18 countries, besides 500 delegates from across the country, are participating in the moot, which was designed and developed for the Saarc countries that bears 40 percent of case load of TB patients of the world, said Chaudhry Muhammad Nawaz, chairman of the organising committee and President International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (IUATLD) Eastern Region.
Pakistan Anti-TB Association (PATA), an NGO started its functions in 1956, with donation of Rs 15,000 from Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah with only one treatment centre in Lahore. Today, the country has 84 diagnostic centres, the largest infrastructure in private sector. In these diagnostic centres, DOTS services are being provided to TB patients. PATA has proved itself to be strong partner of National TB Control Programme in the process of DOTS implementation, he added.
It is pertinent to mention that participation from Saarc countries in this moot remained encouraging, as 50 speakers and scholars are participating from Bangladesh, 15 from Nepal, and 10 from India which reflects the level of interest that civil society as well the governments are taking to combat this dreadful disease, he maintained.
Addressing the conference, the speakers revealed that TB accounts for 9-percent of deaths among women between the ages of 15 and 44 years compared with war, which accounts for 4 percent, HIV and heart diseases 3-percent each. 'Women of reproductive age are more susceptible to sickness once infected with TB. Women in this age group are also at greater risk of developing HIV infection.
TB kills more women than any single cause of maternal mortality and in some parts of the world, the stigma attached to TB leads to isolation, abandonment and divorce of women', they added.
DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course) are the WHO recommended strategy for the detection and cure of TB that combines five elements: political commitment, microscopy services, drugs supplies, monitoring system and direct observations of treatment.
DOTS can add years of life to an HIV-positive person and TB drug treatment can be as effective in curing TB in HIV-positive as in HIV-negative TB patients. If WHO targets to detect 70 percent and cure 85 percent of TB cases are met by 2010, at least one-quarter of TB cases and one quarter of TB deaths could be prevented in the next two decade, they added.
Manager, National TB Control Programme, Dr Syed Karam Shah, IUATLD Executive Director Dr Nils E. Billo, Professor Dr Shamshad Rasool Awan and Kunwar M. Idrees Khan also spoke on this occasion.