KARACHI:At least 40,014 new TB cases have been recorded in Sindh province in the first six months of 2019 out of which 11,900 happened in Karachi division and of them, 971 TB patients have died from this infectious disease, spokesman Sindh TB Control Program told PPI on Sunday.
He said that majority of cases and deaths were reported from Jamshoro (2404), Khairpur (2248) Hyderabad (2174), Umerkot (1814) and Karachi division.
Pakistan has one of the highest burden of TB in the world, with over 500,000 new cases, and over 35,000 deaths from TB annually. Out of 500,000 TB cases, only 300,000 are being reported in various diagnostic centers for treatment all over the country while rest of them remain hidden or unexposed.
In Sindh, more than 100,000 TB cases emerge every year out of them, 75 percent are detected in diagnostic centers while rest of them remains unexposed. The spokesman said there are more than 350 diagnostic and treatment centers across the province out of which 72 are operating in six districts of Karachi division. These centers are providing free of cost treatment facilities to patients infected with TB.
He explained that data of TB patients is collected by diagnostic centers, which is shared to district level centers in meetings and later this data is provided to Provincial TB Program in inter-district meetings on quarterly basis. In 2018, more than 80,000 TB cases were recorded in Sindh province out of these patients, 1,684 patients died.