Drug usage leads to above 0.3mln TB patients in Pakistan

The dangerous spread of drugs in Pakistan has led to a concerning disclosure of 341,619 patients suffering from Tuberculosis (TB) in 2022, according to an official document.

Among these patients, a distressing revelation states that 5,886 individuals lost their lives despite receiving treatment.

The document classifies drug-induced TB patients into two categories. In the first category, 5,511 out of 339,256 TB victims succumbed to the effects of drugs, constituting 2 percent of the total deaths.

On a relatively positive note, 317,923 patients in this category managed to recover from drug-induced TB.

However, the situation becomes more perilous in the second category, where out of 2,363 drug-induced TB patients, 375 individuals lost their lives.

The fatality rate in this dangerous category reached 16 percent, as per the document. Encouragingly, 1,560 patients from this high-risk category managed to recover.

Presently, there are 1,700 centers operating under the National TB Control Program in Pakistan.

The TB treatment is provided free of cost, and substantial financial resources are allocated to the National TB Control Program, underscoring the gravity of the situation and the efforts to curb the dangerous spread of drug-induced TB in the country.