Over 4,000 TB cases being reported in Jalandhar district every year

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Jalandhar, March 24

Despite several measures being taken by the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), the state government and district staff to counter tuberculosis (TB), the statistics reveal that the situation has not improved much.

World TB Day

• Every year on March 24, World Tuberculosis (TB) Day is celebrated to promote public awareness about the disease. The day also highlights the social and economic consequences of tuberculosis, besides its health impacts globally. This year, the theme of World Tuberculosis Day was ‘Invest to end TB, save lives’.

On an average, 4,000 cases were being reported every year in the district and 75 per cent of the patients were under treatment on the guidance of doctors posted at the Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, while the remaining 25 per cent were taking treatment from private hospitals. — Dr Rajiv Sharma, TB and chest specialist

As per the data received from the Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, till March 1, there were as many as 3,100 cases registered under the NTEP who are under treatment. If the cases reported after March 1 — both with the private hospitals and the Civil Hospital — are also taken into account, the number of cases would be more than 4,000, says a government official.

He said if you went through the number of cases registered in 2011 in the district, under the then Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), there were 4,000 cases and a decade after too, the number of cases per year remains the same, i.e. 4,000, which clearly states that these figures are a cause of worry. “If the number of cases being registered does not go down to 1,000 or 1,200 in the next few years, the dream of India to be TB-free by 2025 could not be achieved,” he added.

Meanwhile, sources in the Civil Hospital informed that various posts of doctors and lab technicians in the TB Department of the Civil Hospital had been lying vacant, as a result of which patients face difficulty in getting medicines and the sampling work too gets affected sometimes. When contacted to know about the number of cases being reported in a year, Dr Rajiv Sharma, TB and chest specialist, who is associated with the government’s TB project since 1988, confirmed that on an average, 4,000 cases were being reported every year in the district. He said 75 per cent of the patients were under treatment on the guidance of doctors posted at the Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, while the remaining 25 per cent were taking treatment from private hospitals.

He further said a person, who is suffering from TB and not taking medicine, could spread the infection to about 10 more persons in one year. “Therefore, it is advisable to all those who have been diagnosed with TB to never discontinue their medicines as they can pass the infection to other people without knowing it,” he added.

Talking about government efforts related to the TB programme, Dr Sharma said though a lot of work was needed to be done, the brighter side of the story was that various awareness campaigns were going on in the district. On World TB Day, the district Health Department organised a camp for the people of slum areas.