Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major health problems of the developing countries which affect a significant number of population. TB is amongst the 10 most common causes of death worldwide. World TB Day was observed throughout the world including Sindh Institute of Urology & Transplantation Pakistan (SIUT) on 25th March 2016. It is the vision of SIUT to create awareness and educate the people of our country about diseases such as TB so that they are better equipped to deal with them for an effective outcome and management of the disease.
TB is an infectious and debilitating disease carrying a high incidence of morbidity and mortality. The total estimated number of new cases reported annually worldwide was 10.4 million patients with a mortality rate of estimated 1.4 million patients. In Pakistan, in 2016, estimated 510,000 patients were diagnosed with TB with an incidence of 276/100,000.
On this occasion, TB experts of SIUT informed that Pakistan is amongst those 30 countries of the world that have high TB disease and a high multi drug resistant (MDR) TB burden according to latest global TB report 2016.
Tuberculosis is an airborne disease. Symptoms include a lasting cough, fatigue, coughing up blood, chest pain, sweating at night, fever, loss of appetite, and weight loss. They said that the basic aim of organising this event was to raise mass awareness about TB in terms of its sign & symptoms, spread, treatment and most importantly to highlight its preventive measures.
The programme was organised under the SIUT Infectious Diseases Department for the community with free medical checkups & consultations, dietary/nutritional advices, distribution of educational literature on TB, viewing of disease educational videos, exhibition of informative posters/banners and interactive sessions between SIUT medical staff members with the audience. A very interactive workshop was also organised in collaboration with college of family physicians Karachi about update on diagnosis, treatment and management of TB including MDR TB. The SIUT experts included Dr Jawwad, Dr Asma Nasim and Dr Sunil Dodani, infectious diseases specialists, dieticians and other related medical staff. A large number of people from all walks of life and healthcare professionals attended the event and highly benefited from it.-PR