TB Control Program Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Health department KP and other donor agencies jointly organized a function to mark World TB Day at the multipurpose hall of Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar on Friday.
Former Director General Health Services KP Dr. Ayub Roze, Additional Inspector General Prison Rehan Gul Khattak, Director KMU Institute of Public Health & Social Sciences Dr. Saima Afaq, Director Mother and Child Health Program Dr. Sahib Gul, Additional Director General Health Services KP Dr. Obaidullah, Representative of Mercy Corps Lubna Javed, World Health Organization Dr. Babar Alam, National Coordinator of National TB Control Program Dr. Abdul Wali and Director Provincial TB Control Program Dr. Mudassar Shehzad were addressed the gathering.
The speakers said that TB is a treatable disease and if a person has a cough and fever for more than two weeks, he or she should go to the nearest TB center and get tested. They said that one TB patient can affect 10 to 15 healthy people, so creating TB awareness is a shared national cause of government agencies as well as all citizens.
The experts said that TB should not be considered as a stigma but it should be treated as a disease and attention should be paid to its treatment and prevention measures should be adopted.
The speakers said that TB is a contagious disease and it is possible to control but we all have to work together for this common national cause.
Earlier, Dr. Mudassir Shehzad, Director, Provincial TB Control Program KP, while describing the status and statistics of TB in the country, said that Pakistan ranks fifth in the world in terms of TB patients.
He said that 55000 people are infected with TB in Pakistan every year while 259 out of 100,000 people get infected with TB. He said that the TB control program KP has treated more than 65000 patients since 2002.
Dr. Mudassar Shehzad said that resistance to TB is a great challenge for the whole society while the provincial TB control program has provided free treatment to 2800 patients since 2012.
He said that there were laboratories for TB diagnosis in the province which would soon be extended to all the districts of the province.
