TB takes 56,000 lives annually in Pakistan

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 19 (APP): As many as 160,000 tuberculosis (TB) patients are missed from treatment and around 56,000 deaths are occurred due to this disease in Pakistan every year.

According to an official of National TB Control Programme, the figures of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) are increasing in Pakistan as estimated 27,000 new cases are being reported every year in the country.

Sharing the official available data, he said the TB cases incidence rate per year is 525,000 in Pakistan while the figure of TB cases under treatment is 368,589.

The official said 1,571 microscopy centres have been working in the country. He added the TB treatment success rate was 93 percent.

He said the government has paid special attention to this critical issue and strengthened the programme for providing a free treatment to TB patients.

He said more than three hundred thousand TB patients are benefiting free diagnostic and treatment facilities every year in Pakistan.

He said more than 30 hospitals have been upgraded to take care of multi-drug resistant TB cases and 13 laboratories equipped with state of the art facilities are being established in various parts of the country.

He said the government is committed to achieve the target of eliminating the disease from the country and sought support of all stakeholders in this regard.

He said the government has planned several activities to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences and to step up efforts to end the disease epidemic.

He said it was in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.

Each day, nearly 4,500 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease, he added.

He said global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 54 million lives since the year 2000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 42 percent.

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