Health Dept gears up to eliminate TB

To accelerate the tuberculosis (TB) elimination programme, a meeting of the State TB Forum was held today. Additional Chief Secretary, Health Department, Sudhir Rajpal, said the National TB Elimination Programme was currently one of the top priorities of the State Health Department, and all health programmes and departments must work together to achieve its goals.

The responsibility of TB elimination did not rest solely on the Health Department, active participation of other departments was equally essential, he said, stressing on the need to speed up timely identification and testing of TB cases.

He said raising awareness at the community level and providing socio-emotional support to patients were vital.

The Director General, Health Services, Dr Kuldeep Singh, gave an overview of the forum during the meeting. The Mission Director (NHM), Dr Rippudaman Singh, emphasised on adding new ‘Nikshay Mitras’ so that every patient undergoing treatment could receive nutritional, emotional, and social support.

A request was made to the state Indian Medical Association (IMA), under the ‘Nikshay Mitra’ initiative, to provide nutrition kits to patients. The IMA assured the adoption of 50 to 100 TB patients per district.