Amritsar district set to eradicate TB by 2025

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 9

The district Health Department has launched Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment under the National TB Control Programme to prevent occurrence of TB among the family members of an identified patient.

District TB officer Dr Naresh Chawla said the state government has set a target to eradicate TB till year 2025. He said the new programme would be crucial in realising the dream.

“The chances of family members of an infected person becoming an active case in the next two years are high. The idea is to bring them under preventive treatment, so that the disease does not occur in them,” he said, adding that under the TB Preventive Programme, the teams of TB Alert India would visit the houses of TB patients to counsel the family members and bring them under the programme.

Dr Chawla said 3,960 TB cases have been identified in the district during the current year. Talking about the causes behind the disease, he said low immunity, lack of proper ventilation, underlying health conditions and unhygienic surroundings are a few of the reasons.

He said around 95 per cent of prevalence has been seen in people from lower economic strata of society, but it can occur in anybody as it is a communicable disease.

Important stats

• 3,960 TB cases have been identified in the district during the current year
• Causes behind the disease are low immunity, lack of proper ventilation, underlying health conditions and unhygienic surroundings
• 95% prevalence has been seen in people from lower strata of society, but it can occur in anybody as it is a communicable disease

IMA members meet top cop, put forth their issues

Amritsar: Members of the Indian Medical Association (Amritsar Chapter) met Commissioner of Police Vikram Jeet Duggal and apprised him of the problems faced by medical fraternity, including incidents of violence by relatives of patients. The IMA members said a section of media also runs vilification campaign against private hospitals. Dr Jaspreet Grover, secretary, IMA (Amritsar Chapter), said the Police Commissioner has suggested them to be cautious of unregistered Youtubers claiming to be representatives of media houses and procure list of registered media bodies for reference from the Public Relations Department. He said the Police Commissioner has assured to appoint an SP-rank official as a nodal officer to address issues of violence against medical fraternity at workplace. Dr Kuldeep Singh Arora, chief, IMA (Punjab) said such incidents of violence have a demoralising affect on the medical fraternity. The delegation included Dr Amandeep Kaur, Dr Amrik Singh Arora, Dr RS Sethi and Dr Sukhjit Singh among others. TNS

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