AFGHANISTAN: TB major health problem in the south - WHO

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KANDAHAR, 15 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Zakera, a 40-year-old widow and mother of three, sits in a long queue of mostly female patients awaiting medicine at a tuberculosis (TB) control centre located in the Shar-e-Now district of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

“I have been suffering from a cough and pain for seven months, the same disease I had 10 years ago,” the emaciated Zakera spluttered. “The deadly disease killed my first husband and then I was married to his brother who also died of TB 10 years ago,” Zakera noted.”

“Life has become so miserable for me, Sharina, my only daughter, has also been suffering from the same illness for six months.” Zakera, who had to travel for two days to get to the clinic, added.

Zakera is one of thousands of people suffering from TB in post-conflict Afghanistan. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, approximately 70,000 new TB cases occur annually in Afghanistan, and an estimated 20,000 people in the country die from the disease every year. Two-thirds of Afghanistan’s reported TB cases are women.

According to health officials, the disease is rampant in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Urozgan, Helmand and Daikundi.

“Due to lack of government attention and weak health infrasturces, TB still remains one of the biggest health problems in the southern region,” Dr Mamoon Tahiry, regional coordinator of the national TB control programme for the southern provinces, said in Kandahar.

Lack of education about the condition is another key issue, with late diagnosis and failure to complete subscribed medicines also playing their part in keeping TB prevalence rates high.

“TB is one of the major health problems in the south, if controlled measures are not strengthened right away it could cripple thousands of people with its ultimate impact on the economy,“ said Dr Arshad Quddus, medical officer at WHO southern regional office in Kandahar.

TB is a disease which usually attacks the lungs, but it can affect almost any part of the body. A person with TB does not necessarily feel ill but the symptoms can include a cough that will not go away, tiredness, weight loss, loss of appetite, fever, night sweats and coughing up blood.

Like the common cold, TB is spread through the air after infected people cough or sneeze on others.

Commenting on the problem of TB in southern Afghanistan, Dr Hayat Mohammad Ahmadzai, director of the national TB control programme at the health ministry, said that the government was trying its best to improve the TB control system in the region.

“We have trained personnel in the region and they are working hard to expand the TB control programme,” Ahmadzai noted, adding the ministry had already established 45 health facilities providing TB services in the area and was planning to raise the number to 92 during 2006 in all five southern provinces.

According to health experts, of every 100 patients infected with TB and left without treatment for two years, 50 would die, 25 would recover and 25 percent would survive as chronic cases with the potential to infect others.

According to the WHO, TB kills more young people and adults than any other infectious disease and is the world's biggest killer of women. TB kills approximately 2 million people worldwide each year and the global epidemic is growing. The breakdown in health services, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the emergence of strains of multi-drug resistant TB are contributing to its spread worldwide.

Between 2002 and 2020 at least 36 million people globally will die of TB - if further control is not strengthened, the WHO has warned.

[ENDS]