Govt committed to eradicate tuberculosis from country: Health Minister Kiani

ISLAMABAD: Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Aamer Mehmood Kiani on Wednesday said the government was committed to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) from the country by creating awareness in public and ensuring treatment facilities for every patient.

Addressing the national seminar to launch ‘TB-free Pakistan Initiative’, Aamer Mehmood Kiani said the government had been focusing on TB, which was the largest killer amongst infectious diseases in Pakistan, with a very high morbidity and mortality rate.

He said the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination had been providing a clear and strategic direction to overcome this menace throughout the country.

The minister said the National Strategic Plan 2017-2020 highlighted the priority action areas in line with ‘End TB Strategy’, which were intended to provide great momentum, strategic depth and a mutually shared vision to the ongoing efforts for TB control ultimately leading to a TB-free Pakistan by 2030.

He said the ‘End TB initiative’ was being strengthened by the guiding values of good governance, provision of high quality services, equity and a pro-poor approach with transparency and accountability in addition to developing a holistic approach with integration and cross sectoral linkages, as enshrined in the Declaration of the United Nations High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis that had been ratified and was being strictly pursued by Pakistan.

“Successful implementation of the ‘End TB initiative’ is strongly linked to effective coordination and collaboration with the ‘Provincial Departments of Health’, which needs to develop linkages with the other social sectors at provincial and district level,” he added.

In this regard, it was imperative that all provincial governments undertake the necessary steps instrumental for setting the ‘End TB initiative’ into motion, through indigenous funding of the TB control mechanisms and programmes while engaging in the required multi-sectoral collaboration.

The minister emphasised the critical role of private sector, which needed to join hands with the government more robustly in the fight against TB with a view to eliminate this disease as soon as practicable.

Aamer Kiani said, “We have a sizable network of about 6,500 facilities integrated within the public and private healthcare system at all levels that offer free of cost TB diagnostic and treatment services in Pakistan. We are aware of the other costs that TB patients have to bear and are doing our best to reduce catastrophic costs.”

“Increasing access of TB services to reach the estimated 200,000 drug sensitive TB cases and 27,000 drug resistant TB cases that are missed to notification annually is our foremost priority,” he said.

He said that the government recognizes that a healthy population is essential for developing a skilled workforce that has the capacity to take on the enormous challenges facing the country.