Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: Around 20 per cent of Afghanistan’s estimated 31 million populationare affiliated with the Tuberculosis, health officials say.
Last year, 9,000 people in the country lost their lives due to the disease, Dr. Ferozuddin Feroz, Public Health Minister said in a gathering on Sunday marking the World Tuberculosis Day.
The Afghan-Japan Hospital, a healthcare institute supported by Japanese government, is the only hospital in Kabul which hosts more than 100 patients every day from the capital and provinces.
Patients who come from distant parts of the country have to endure the illness bad for many months to be healthy, health officials say.
Dozens of patients at the Afghan Japan Hospital are waiting for treatment, but there are only a few cold and limited beds for admission to TB patients at the hospital, patients complain.
Doctors at the hospital also complain about the lack of facilities and beds in the hospital.
Most of the TB patients come for treatment are from Nangarhar, Faryab, Kapisa, Parwan, Baghlan, Paktia, MaidanWardak, Logar, Kunduz, Bamyan and Khost provinces, according to hospital in charges.
Doctors say they need more equipment to fight and eradicate TB in country.
Feroz added that in 2014, the death toll in the country reached 23,000, and now by creating more medical centers, the number of deaths of TB patients in the past years considerable decreased.
Currently, there are more than 2,600 treatment centers for the treatment of tuberculosis in the country, but according to the Minister of Public Health, due to lack of access to health centers or failure to referring those, 20% of patients remain diagnosed.
