Keonjhar: The district administration of Odisha’s Keonjhar on Tuesday launched distribution of nutritional support via the food baskets at the doorsteps of TB patients in the district.
The Chief District Medical & Public Health Officer (CDM&PHO) launched the programme at Naranpur in Keonjhar. The CDM&PHO had signed an MoU with District Level Federation (DLF) of Women Self Help Groups (SHGs), Mission Shakti for ensuring the supply of doorstep nutritional support for more than 2000 TB patients in the district on January 13.
An amount of Rs 12.3 crore has been sanctioned under DMF for ‘Nutritional Support to the TB patients’ in Keonjhar for 3 years. The DLF, Mission Shakti has been assigned the task of procurement of food baskets, ensuring the quality of food items and delivery to each patient under treatment for 6 months.
Additional District Public Health Officer (ADPHO)-TB, DPC Mission Shakti, District Programme Manager (DPM), NHM, Keonjhar and president of DLF, Mission Shakti along with representatives from DMF Keonjhar were present.
In Odisha, around 53,612 TB patients have been identified and are under treatment. As per the reports, Keonjhar is among the top four districts with more than 2,000 TB patients and 1,354 numbers of them under treatment.
India has the world’s highest number of TB patients with an estimated 26 lakh people contracting the disease and approximately 4 lakh dying from the disease every year. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has implemented an ambitious National Strategic Plan with the goal to end TB by 2025.
