800 TB patients detected in Chitral every year

Report GH Farooqui, Chitral

A series of awareness seminars about tuberculosis conducted at Bumborat and Birir of Kalash Valley, Madaglasht concluded at Drosh on Saturday.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Mutasim Billah was chief guest on the occasion while the ceremony was presided over by Sartaj Ahmad Khan, the tehsil nazim of Chitral. The advocacy seminar was organized by provincial TB Control Program and district health department and sponsored by GTZ.
Dr Noorul Islam, District TB Control Officer, said TB affected some 2.5 million people worldwide and 250,000 patients in Pakistan.
He said every year 800 TB patients were detected in Chitral alone. He said TB was declared as Global Emergency by WHO in 1985 while in 2001 it was put on first priority by Pakistan. The government has earmarked Rs1,250 million for eradicating the disease.
Dr.Nekdad Afridi, Shandana Khisro, Azra Ahmad, the EDO health, the DCO, tehsil nazim and Dr Salahuddin of AKHS spoke on the occasion. The speakers asked the public to take precautionary measurement against TB. They lamented that People’s Primary Health Care Initiative (PPHI) had not bothered to participate in the seminars. The speakers urged the government to increase the budget for improving case detection ratio (CDR), adding TB is a curable disease and a patient can completely recover in eight months if he continues his treatment which is free of cost.