KARACHI, Dec 14: The provincial health department is putting in considerable efforts towards the control of tuberculosis in Sindh.

This was stated by Dr Holger Sawert, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Mission currently on a visit to the province. The TB control programme in Sindh is functioning very smoothly, he remarked.

In his meeting with the additional secretary (Health), Dr Srichand Ochani, on Saturday, Dr Sawert particularly appreciated the teamwork at provincial and district level and expressed the hope that the programme would achieve the target of 70 per cent detection of smear positive cases and 85 per cent successful treatment rate by 2005.

Dr Ochani thanked the Global Drug Facility (GDF) for its assistance in shape of a complete drug regimen for 50,000 TB patients over a period of two years in Sindh. He, however, highlighted certain problems that might arise during 2005-2006 when the support would be withdrawn. The district governments may not be in a position to raise sufficient funds for TB treatment drugs, he apprehended.

He pointed out that in the revised PC-I of the TB Control Programme, Sindh, an amount of Rs50 million had been earmarked for the procurement of medicines during 2003-2006, in addition to Rs7 million that were being provided annually in the recurrent non-development budget for the provincially managed institutions at district level. As the number of detected cases would increase in all the districts, efforts would be made to enhance the proportion of the budget for anti-TB medicines.

The WHO Operations Officer for Sindh, Dr Ghulam Nabi Kazi, remarked that the province was fortunate enough to have deep political commitment for the programme right from its inception in August 2000 when it was launched by the then governor, Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro.

Subsequently Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar, in his first public announcement at Sukkur, had held out the assurance that anti-TB drugs would be provided free of charge to all the citizens in the province.

Mr Kazi pointed out: “now that universal TB-DOTS coverage has been achieved in Sindh, efforts are being made to strengthen government centres and develop partnerships with other stakeholders, including private sector, in an effort to make case detection more effective.”

He said that all macro-indicators of the programme were highly encouraging although greater efforts were required for enhancing case detection, particularly in Karachi; reducing the default rate in certain districts by making the TB-DOTS process more patient-friendly; and establishing more treatment centres.

Dr Sawert, who is working in the ‘Stop TB Team’ at the WHO regional office in Cairo, earlier visited Civil Hospital Karachi along with Dr Amanullah Ansari, WHO’s National Programme Officer TB Control, Sindh, where he had interaction with the Medical Superintendent Capt Ali Reza and In-charge of the TB-DOTS Clinic Dr Tajammul Baig Mughal. He was quite impressed with the working at this tertiary care hospital.

Dr Sawert, however, advised the care providers to develop linkages with women health workers so that the problem of defaulting patients could be addressed. He expressed his admiration for the positive role played by the hospital management in solving the issues of TB Diagnostic Centre.

Later, he left for Dadu along with other members of the mission namely Dr Muhammad Akhtar of the WHO headquarters, and Dr Thomas L. Chiang, GLRA Consultant to the National TB Control Programme.—APP