Mercy Corps all out for preventing tuberculosis in Pakistan

KARACHI: With the mission of preventing tuberculosis, a one-day advocacy and awareness seminar was organized by Mercy Corps in collaboration with the Communicable Disease Control (CDC-Sindh), Bridge Consultants Foundation (BCF) and Greenstar Social Marketing (GSM).

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Samreen Ashraf Qureshi, Deputy Directory CDC III Sindh, praised the efforts of Mercy Corps and its partners in rolling out the TB preventive treatment (TPT) program across the country

Dr. Adeel Tahir, Senior Program Manager Mercy Corps, shed light on the background and objectives of the seminar. Syed Saleem Hasan Kazmi, Senior Provincial Program Officer, CDC TB Sindh gave a comprehensive briefing on the topic of ‘Burden of TB (Global Vs Pakistan), Programmatic Management of TPT’.

During a panel discussion, Dr. Sharaf Ali Shah, CEO BCF, Dr. Zulfiqar Dharejo, Deputy Director General CDC Sindh, and Dr. Shaheena Qayyum, Program Manager, BCF, emphasized the need for innovation to reduce the burden of TB in Pakistan. They also discussed the misconceptions around TPT and the standard practices around TPT regimen.

TB has remained a major public health concern around the world. Globally, it is estimated that 1.6 million people lost their lives and 10.6 million fell ill from TB in 2021. It is the second-leading infectious killer after COVID-19 and has been declared a national emergency in Pakistan since 2001.

Under the TPT program, a treatment offered to individuals who are considered to be at risk of developing disease in order to reduce that risk. It is one of the key interventions recommended by the WHO to achieve the End TB Strategy targets, as upheld by the UN High Level Meeting on TB in September 2018.