The Eastern Mediterranean Partnership to Stop TB is a movement to stop tuberculosis in the Region. The Partnership coordinates joint planning and action to meet this growing public health and development challenge. The Partnership includes representatives of countries of the Region, affected communities, technical agencies, multilateral agencies, donors, media, private sector, businesses, industry, academia, nongovernmental and humanitarian organizations.
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Inaugural meeting of the newly-revived national partnership
Islamabad, Pakistan, 13 August 2009

The inaugural meeting of the newly-revived coordinating board of Stop TB Partnership Pakistan was held in Islamabad. The meeting coincided with debriefing session on the national tuberculosis programme review by WHO and other international partner organizations. Representatives of the Ministry of Health, multilateral/bilateral aid and technical agencies, the media, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, academia and civil society attended the meeting in addition to the well-known television artist Ms. Shehnaz Sheikh.

The inaugural meeting was presided over by the newly-elected board chair Professor Masood Hameed Khan, who is also Vice Chancellor of the country’s premier medical university Dow University of Medical Sciences.

Dr Noor Ahmad Baloch, the manager of the national tuberculosis programme, informed participants that the Dow University had agreed to provide secretarial support to the national partnership while the programme would continue to coordinate technical aspects of the overall tuberculosis care strategy in the country. The Chair Dr Hameed outlined the objectives of the Partnership and said that it would work towards the elimination of tuberculosis from Pakistan by fostering national dialogue and action to complement the national tuberculosis programme in implementation of the Stop TB Strategy. The Chair also stressed the need to make tuberculosis a political and development priority in the country.

Mr Aziz Khan Tank, President of the Pakistan Medical Association, and Mr Islam Khan from the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry also spoke on the occasion and ensured support for Stop TB activities. Pakistan shoulders almost of half of the tuberculosis disease burden in the Region. The country has continued to make progress in tuberculosis care since 2000. The latest programme review mission noted that case notifications of tuberculosis had continued to increase. In 2008, 248 115 of all forms of tuberculosis, including 99 670 new sputum smear positive (SS+) cases, were notified. The treatment success rate of SS+ cases registered in 2007 is reportedly 91%. The review mission appreciated the good implementation of its 2008 recommendations, despite the increasing economic and security difficulties in the country. However, the mission also noted that there were several critical recommendations that had not yet been fully implemented, including: support to Green Star like private sector partners; medicine management; suspect management; contact management; control of sale of second-line tuberculosis medicines, and; empowerment of patients. It is expected that the revived national partnership will help the national programme strengthen implementation of tuberculosis care services in Pakistan.