SAHIWAL - Under the National TB Control Programme, the health department held a session for journalists at TB Hospital in Bin Yameen, seeking media role to fight the contagious but curable disease.
Addressing the session, Dr Shahid Nazir, the district coordinator of the programme, said that TB Control Programme has been launched across in country in collaboration with a global fund. He added that different programmes were being carried out to creative awareness against the disease. He said that in district Sahiwal, 14 centres including three hospitals and 11 rural health centres were providing free checkup and medicines facilities. He said that TB is a curable. He said that it is infectious disease. If proper treatment is not availed, it can affect other people as well especially family members, he warned. He said that there are 231 TB patients in the population of 100,000 in Sahiwal. He said that 5,000 centres are functioning for TB control with free diagnose facility and medicine across the Punjab. He said that if it becomes multi-disease then its treatment is very costly. He said that under dot programme, 4,000 patients are being provided treatment in the district. He said that under the programme, health teams are carrying out checkups of people in remote areas.
On the occasion, social mobiliser Sajeela Zafar and programme officer Nazma Khan said that TB is a fatal disease but it is curable. If treatment is not carried out on time, it changes in dangerous multi-drug resistance disease. Every TB patient can get rid of it after completion of a six-month course. According to international survey, Pakistan is ranked 6 in the world. Mobilisation of TB patients is the need of hour, they said and added that the media can play a vital role in this regard. They said that TB patients should get treatment for which complete course of 6-month is necessary. They said that TB dot programme is underway to control TB in 151 countries for which funding is made by the global fund.