Last night I was reading a draft survey report, done by a local media representative in interior Sindh’s rural areas. I was really shocked to know that in many villages and other areas of Tharparkar, Matyari, and Hyderabad districts there are so many people affected by MDR-TB. The survey revealed that the disease is spreading in Sindh at a very fast pace and hence could become very dangerous for people of Sindh in future.

I feel really sad to mention here that despite the rapid spread of the disease, there are now government provided facilities for providing treatment for the disease. In entire Pakistan there are only two private hospitals that provide treatment to MDR-TB patients but due to lack of resources they can only treat a limited number of Patients. Moreover, as they are located in Karachi and Lahore, most of the rural people cannot afford to even access them due to poverty. Even otherwise, most of the people affected by the disease are poor and live from hand to mouth, so it is really difficult for them afford treatment for TB in any way.

Moreover, government has not even felt the responsibility to conduct a survey on ascertaining the number of MDR-TB patients in the country; so it is really difficult to tell the exact number of TB patients in Sindh. However, from the writers’ interaction with doctors, paramedical staff, TB patients and other people in different parts of Sindh, he could infer that there could be thousands of people affected by the disease in Sindh alone.

Pakistani government is running a National TB Program but it has no facilities to provide treatment to MDR-TB patients. Hence, there is need of starting a MDR-TB program separately.