A screening programme for childhood tuberculosis ongoing in 12 districts will soon be extended to all 36 districts of the Punjab, said a Health Department official on Sunday.
Pakistan has the fifth highest number of TB cases in the world, with more than 400,000 new patients reported every year, said Dr Drakshan Badar, the coordinator of the Provincial Tuberculosis Programme, in a briefing to the press on World TB Day, organised in collaboration with Mercy Corps and the Global Fund, which work on the prevention of the disease.
Dr Badar said that TB patients could now be put on a six-month course of medicines under the DOTS programme. But many patients do not complete their treatment, which increases complications and fatality rate. She said that the media should stress the message that TB patients must continue taking their medicines until they are completely recovered from the disease.
Tuberculosis sufferers are getting free medicines under the Punjab TB Control Programme in hospitals and health centres all over the province, particularly at Gulab Devi Hospital, with the cooperation of Mercy Corps and the Global Fund, she said.
Diagnostic and treatment facilities have also been provided in jails. Prisoners earlier had to go to district headquarters hospitals or Gulab Devi Hospital, but now they can get treatment locally, she said. New prisoners are also screened for TB. There are 530 TB diagnosis centres and 2,899 treatment centres in the Punjab.
Poverty, increasing population, unplanned cities, lack of civic amenities, overcrowded living conditions and food shortage encourage the spread of tuberculosis, Dr Badar said.
She urged the media to raise awareness of the disease. People with symptoms of fever, cough and weight loss should immediately visit the nearest hospital for diagnosis, she added.
‘A live donor can provide 50% of his liver’
Around 300,000 patients need liver transplants which makes cadaver donations necessary as organ donations from one body can save the lives of six people. These views were expressed by Associate Prof Dr Amir Latif of the Liver Transplantation Unit of the Kidney Centre of Shaikh Zayed Hospital on Sunday.
The doctor said the kidneys of a donor could be transplanted to two people. “Similarly, a liver can be donated to two people as 30 per cent of it is quite enough to perform in a health body. A living person can donate 50 per cent of the liver,” he added. He said lungs and hearts could also be donated to.
“According to the Cadaver Human Tissue Ordinance 2009, and its passage in the form of an Act in the 18th Amendment, it is now legal to transplant donated organs,” he said.
When asked about impediments to cadaver transplant, he pointed to a lack of public awareness and non-implementation of law as main hurdles besides a shortage of much needed medical facilities in the unit.
“There is an urgent need to motivate people to donate their organs in the interest of the ailing,” he added.
He said that cadaver donation had started in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and in Europe.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2013.