‘Pakistan struggling to find missing TB cases’

Islamabad: Pakistan is continuously struggling to set strategic directions to find the missing 140,000 cases of Tuberculosis and is positioning itself to tackle the emerging threat of Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB. While some measures have already been taken, others are still in the pipeline.

Minister for Health Aamer Mehmood Kiani extended this assurance to members of a high-level mission from the World Health Organisation who called on him here Thursday.

The objectives of the meeting were to prioritize TB control on the political agenda of the country; to increase commitment of all stakeholders to end TB by 2030; to attract more partners in TB control in Pakistan; to empower affected communities towards ending the TB epidemic; to increase public awareness of the threat of TB; to Combat stigma and discrimination against TB patients; TO Mobilise domestic resources to fight the disease; and to reduce catastrophic costs incurred by families affected by TB.

“TB is one of the priority diseases for prevention and control, Kiani assured the delegation while also referring to improvements in other areas of health such as creation of referral linkages between primary, secondary and tertiary levels of health care delivery, promoting public-private partnership, and revamping the LHW programme to improve community level essential health services. He said, multi-sectoral linkages will be developed with other line ministries and departments for effective response to the TB epidemic.