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MoH seeks Pak, India missions’ help to monitor spread of TB

Dr Juma Bilal Fairuz, Director of the Department of Disease Control at the MoH, said that such an initiative had been launched two years back, but no response was forthcoming from the respective consulates. “I will hold a meeting with the consul generals of both these countries on Saturday (March 25), a day after the world celebrates World TB Day on March 24.

“Earlier, I had suggested to the consulates of these countries to ask their community members to pool funds for assisting the sick so that they could seek help in being screened before entering the country, but according to my knowledge, no step has been taken yet,” he said.

Citing statistics, Dr Juma said that 7 out of 100,000 UAE nationals were infected with the disease while the ratio of the infected expat population was 16 out of 100,000.

He also said that 4 to 5 people died of the disease in a minute the world over. “The cost of the treatment according to WHO is $40,” said Dr Juma. He also said that one third of the world population was infected with the disease.

According to the World Health Organisation’s TB epidemiological profile for the UAE till May 31, 2005, in a total population of 2994778, the incidences of TB (all cases/100,000 pop/year) were 18, mortality due to the disease (all cases/100 000 pop/year) was 2.1. The UAE’s global rank by established number of cases, is 144. WHO has adopted the “Stop TB Strategy”.

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