‘Efforts on to eradicate tuberculosis’

KARACHI – The Sindh Tuberculosis Control Programme (STBCP) has been running successfully in 13 districts of the province and the government plans to extend it to the remaining districts as well, Adviser to Chief Minister Sharmila Farooqui said on Tuesday.
“The Sindh government, in collaboration with the federal government and international agencies, is providing free treatment to TB patients,” she told a delegation of doctors and paramedical staff at her office.
The adviser said that TB is an infectious disease and it is the duty of the STBCP Coordinator, members of the civil society and the media to create awareness about the disease so that the growing number TB cases could be reduced. “This would be a great service to the society,” she added.
“Better health facilities, a neat and clean environment and a balanced diet can reduce the risk of TB and for this, we will have to work together,” she said, adding that it is a blessing of science that TB could be treated successfully with antibiotics.
She conceded that the number of TB patients in the province is rising, especially in rural areas, but the provincial government is trying hard to eradicate the disease from the province.
She said that the present democratic government is giving priority to health and education so that the masses could be provided maximum facilities.
She also lauded the role of doctors and paramedical staff, who were working to eliminate TB from the province and assured them that the Sindh government would take measures to provide more facilities to TB patients of Tuberculosis. “I will talk to the chief minister and the provincial health minister to extend the STBCP.
The doctors and paramedical staff informed the adviser about their performance and problems on the on the occasion. Farooqui assured them that their problems would be solved soon.
According to STBCP Director Dr Asmat Ara, 50,000 new TB patients were registered with the programme in the year 2010. TB is an infectious disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
It was first isolated in 1882 by a German physician named Robert Koch who received the Nobel Prize for this discovery. TB most commonly affects the lungs but also can involve almost any organ of the body. Many years ago, this disease was referred to as “consumption” because without effective treatment, these patients often would waste away.
Today, tuberculosis can be treated successfully with antibiotics. Normally, it takes eight months to fully cure a TB patient.
The STBCP director said that 50 multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients were also registered with her programme and the federal government is providing medicines for them.
She said that each MDR-TB patient needs Rs 0.2 million to be treated; however, the government is providing them free of charge treatment facilities.Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is defined as TB that is resistant at least to isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RMP), the two most powerful first-line anti-TB drugs.
Isolates that are multiply-resistant to any other combination of anti-TB drugs but not to INH and RMP are not classed as MDR-TB.
MDR-TB develops during treatment of fully-sensitive TB when the course of antibiotics is interrupted and the levels of drug in the body are insufficient to kill 100 percent of bacteria. This can happen for a number of reasons: Patients may feel better and halt their antibiotic course, drug supplies may run out or become scarce or patients may forget to take their medication from time to time.
MDR-TB is spread from person to person as readily as drug-sensitive TB and in the same manner. A person can become infected with tuberculosis bacteria when he or she inhales minute particles of infected sputum from the air. The bacteria get into the air when someone who has a tuberculosis lung infection coughs, sneezes, shouts, or spits (which is common in some cultures).
People who are nearby can then possibly breathe the bacteria into their lungs. You do not become infected by just touching the clothes or shaking the hands of someone who is infected.
Tuberculosis is transmitted primarily from person to person by breathing infected air during close contact. There is a form of atypical tuberculosis, however, that is transmitted by drinking unpasteurised milk.
Related bacteria, called Mycobacterium bovis, cause this form of TB. Previously, this type of bacteria was a major cause of TB in children, but it rarely causes TB now since most milk is pasteurised (undergoes a heating process that kills the bacteria). TB infection usually occurs initially in the upper part (lobe) of the lungs. The body’s immune system, however, can stop the bacteria from continuing to reproduce. Thus, the immune system can make the lung infection inactive (dormant). On the other hand, if the body’s immune system cannot contain the TB bacteria, the bacteria will reproduce (become active or reactivate) in the lungs and spread elsewhere in the body. It may take many months from the time the infection initially gets into the lungs until symptoms develop.
The usual symptoms that occur with an active TB infection are a generalized tiredness or weakness, weight loss, fever, and night sweats. If the infection in the lung worsens, then further symptoms can include coughing, chest pain, coughing up of sputum (material from the lungs) and/or blood, and shortness of breath. If the infection spreads beyond the lungs, the symptoms will depend upon the organs involved.
Dow University of Health Sciences’ Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases Director Dr Ifitkhar Ahmed said that more than 200,000 patients of TB, asthma and other chest diseases visit the OPD of his institute every year.