'About 410,000 TB patients being diagnosed every year in Pakistan'

About four lakh ten thousand TB patients are being diagnosed every year in Pakistan, while about 1.3 million cases have been successfully treated with provision of free drugs since the launching of programme in 2000, said Director General Health Ministry of Health Dr Asad Hafeez at a press conference here on Thursday. He said the World TB Day is being observed on March 24 and the need is to create public awareness about the deadly disease, which is a major public health problem in Pakistan.
Dr Asad Hafeez said the current success rate of TB treatment is more than 91 percent, which, he described as a big achievement through the commendable efforts of the staff involved in diagnosing and treating the patients. He said at present two lakh seventy thousand patients are being treated and a TB patient take six months to one year to fully recover from the disease.
Giving a detailed review of the National TB Programme, Director General Health said Pakistan is one of the ten countries where TB is a common disease and despite improved efforts over the last few years, still it is a major health issue. He said there has been significant increase in detection and treatment of TB and presently seventy percent of the population is being covered.
Dr Asad Hafeez said this was possible because 5,800 diagnostic and treatment centres have been established in public and private sectors where free testing and treatment services were being provided. National TB standard treatment guidelines for TB control including childhood TB have been devised and being implemented. Dr Ejaz Qadeer, Manager, National TB Control Programme said TB diagnostic and treatment facilities have been made available in every district, tehsil hospitals as well as in rural health centres and basic health units.-PR