Stop TB Pakistan
I was only 10-year old when doctors told to my mother that I am under attack of TB. My mother was stunned to hear this.
Then she started my treatment but I had to give up on my school, friends, sports and social activities all of sudden. I asked my mother what is this disease, I am caught up? It’s TB (Tuberculosis).
I somehow couldn’t understand what this disease is. I was out of school which disturbed my life but my mother promised me to get me in again after I will be all healthy.
My treatment took four years and today, it’s done. Now I am 14 years old and happy to start my schooling again. Thanks to the determination of my mother and doctors who made it possible for me to see this day.”
“It’s the story of 14-year old Shumaila, a TB survivor, who shared her story with DOPASI Foundation which is working for Stop TB Pakistan.
I happened to attend the Seminar arranged by Dopasi Foundation and heard many similar stories from survivors MEN and WOMEN shared how they lost their jobs, marriages and employment.
It was very heart breaking to hear it all. Normal TB treatment is for 6 months long and in some cases, they are hospitalized.
Every TB patient goes through rigorous treatment for the first two months and post that the treatment is revised based on the health conditions and test results of the patient.
TB medication is free of cost available in govt-owned DOTS Centre, but anyone without a prescription can’t get this medication.
However, one can get medication from a pharmacy after paying the due cost. I latterly came to know in this Seminar that it’s very much curable disease and its treatment is absolutely free of cost.
Its treatment is “RIGHT” based right for all. Further I learned Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne disease and despite being curable, it remains globally the second most common cause of death from infectious diseases, killing almost 2 million people annually.
Pakistan, with an estimated 600,000 new TB cases emerging and 44,000 deaths each year and approximately 27,000 developing drug-resistant TB cases every year, is ranked fifth among TB high-burden countries worldwide and it accounts for over 60% of the burden of the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, comprising of 22 countries.
Ending the TB epidemic in a high burden of TB and DR-TB countries like Pakistan will require a paradigm shift: by adapting a response based on an inclusive, transformed, and equitable approach.
The WHO Global TB Report 2019 estimates 64% of treatment coverage in the country. However, of additional concern is the high incidence of drug-resistant TB at 27,000 with a much lower-case notification rate in Pakistan.
Pakistan has short substantially for the resources required by the country to adequately combat the disease and meet END TB SDGs 2030 goals of Pakistan with enhanced domestic spending from federal and provincial governments, civil society, and other stakeholders in the country.
It is our individual and collective responsibility to play our vital role in the elimination of this disease as early as world has developed Covid Vaccine.
We must put emphasis on its awareness and the need of funding for highlighting the fact. TB was first notified in 1882 and it took 39 years to develop the vaccine.
However today the world has witnessed the development of a vaccine as early as one year for COVID-19. Though estimated deaths from TB as of 2020 were 1.9 million globally and 2 million deaths due to COVID.
There is a need when Pakistan must think, prepare and make some policies to Stop TB in Pakistan as how underprivileged and marginalized communities are at high risk for contracting TB and going on without proper medical care due to social taboos attached to the disease.
In far flung areas of Pakistan we find this disease as Social Taboo whereas majority of its population still have no knowledge that TB is completely a curable disease which has free treatment all over the world, including Pakistan.
—The writer is TV anchorperson current affairs, Islamabad.
