World Tuberculosis (TB) Day was observed in Pakistan like many other countries on Saturday with a renewed pledge to raise awareness about the disease to make Pakistan a healthy society. To mark the day‚ seminars, walks, awareness camps and other activities were organised by various governmental and non-government organisations in Lahore.
World TB Day is marked to create awareness among the masses about the disease which kills seven million people every year. Briefing the representatives of the media on World TB Day, Director Punjab TB Control Programme Dr Darakshan Badar said that on the directions of Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, prisoners Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) linkage programme has been started for the treatment of TB patients in jails and screening of more than 160,000 prisoners had been conducted so far. Moreover, new prisoners and the prisoners released from the jails were examined for diagnosing Tuberculoses so that the other prisoners could be saved from this disease.
According to her, TB is spreading more than 29 percent in jails because prisoners are kept beyond the capacity of jails. Dr Badar disclosed that around 300,000 new tuberculoses patients are being added to the actual figure. She said that the dropout during the treatment was very dangerous; therefore, the TB patient should not give up the use of medicines until the treatment was over. She said that six- month course of medicines for new TB patient and eight-month course for old patient was a must.
She further said that the Punjab government was providing free diagnostic and treatment facilities to the TB patients in all hospitals and medical centers. She said that facility of modern laboratories had been provided in Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi for culture test where culture test of TB is completed within two hours.