ISLAMABAD: Out of 95 mobile TB diagnosis vans, not a single vehicle is operating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in Balochistan, while 70 such vans are operating in Sindh and 16 in Punjab, according to a report presented on Friday before the Senate’s sub-committee of the Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination.
The meeting was chaired by Senator Dr Ghous Muhammad Khan Niazi and was attended among others by Senator Dr Ashok Kumar and senior officials of the Ministry of Health and the National TB Control Programme. The sub-committee strongly recommended at least three to five mobile vans in Balochistan.
The sub-committee was told that the National TB Control Programme, working since 2000, was an allied body of the ministry which manages the overall working of the TB prevention and implementation has to be carried out by the provinces. In 2016, a total of 510,000 estimated cases were found and 366,061 have been treated with a success rate of 93%.
The programme gets 144 million dollars from the Global Fund which is distributed between public and private sector after consultations during the Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) meetings. Besides, 88 million was given to the National TB Control Programme under the federal ministry, 45 million to the Indus Hospital of Karachi and 15 million to Mercy Corps.
Dr Aurangzeb from the TB Control Programme told the meeting that the Indus Hospital has refused to restart its mobile vans in Balochistan due to security concerns. The sub-committee asked the Health Services joint secretary to write to the Balochistan Health secretary as well as to the hospital to immediately send mobile vans to the province.
The sub-committee was told that 135 medical units are currently operating in Balochistan, but doctors are concentrated in big cities. Senator Ashok Kumar observed that incentives as well as security need to be given to encourage working for the TB Control and diagnosis in periphery areas.
He said that it was not possible that out of 366,061, only about 10,000 cases were diagnosed from Balochistan. The committee convener said that when no mobile vans were there to diagnose the disease, how would the actual number be known.