A campaign against tuberculosis "Aao TB Mitao" on Tuesday was launched in Peshawar after successfully initiated by Indus Health Network (IHW) in Karachi. The campaign was launched by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister, Pervez Khattak during a formal ceremony held here. Provincial Minister for Health, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Chief Executive Officer of IHN Abdul-Bari and other officials concerned were present on the occasion.

Abdul-Bari, CEO of the network while briefing on the occasion said that the national campaign against TB was first launched by IHN in Karachi earlier this year, which is now expanding to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the movement aspires to free Peshawar and eventually KP from this disease, which is curable and for which free-of-cost diagnosis and treatment can be made widely available. He added the World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated that 10.4 million new TB cases occurred worldwide in 2015, of these 1.8 million died.

In KP, he informed that each year approximately 60,000 new cases of TB are reported - but it is estimated that the actual number of TB cases occurring each year is higher and many people, adults and children, spend years with the disease without reaching correct diagnosis and appropriate care. Aao TB Mitao aims to search for missing patients of TB, by increasing access to TB diagnostic testing and treatment. The movement will be going on in Peshawar and extend to Swabi, Karak, D I Khan, Nowshera and Lakki Marwat, the official said.

Under this initiative, the official communiqué said that 'active case finding' will be introduced at 8 hospitals in Peshawar to pro-actively screen adults for TB using chest x-rays and symptom screening. Cutting edge and free GeneXpert tests will now be available in Peshawar and at diagnostic centres in Karak, D I Khan, and Lakki Marwat for more accurate and speedy diagnosis of TB. The machine provides results for each sample in two hours, he added.

Later, speaking on the occasion, Pervez Khattak said that the KP government wanted that every citizen of the province should be healthy and that is why that it is giving all health facilities to the people of KP. The CM further said that the Aao TB mittao movement is a step in the race towards 'Naya KP' and that private sector and civil society should participate in the movement in order to win the fight against TB.

Health Minister KP, Shahram Khan Tarakai and Secretary Health KP, Muhammad Abid Majeed also spoke on the occasion. They declared that as part of the Aao TB Mitao initiative, Peshawar is being declared a 'Zero TB' city. Zero TB is a global initiative under which cities undertake to significantly reduce the prevalence of TB in a short time by introducing comprehensive 'search, treat, and prevent' strategies.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017