Bhubaneswar: With more than 25% of the total tuberculosis (TB) patients in the world reported from India, the Central government aims at eradicating the killer disease completely by 2025.
Stating this at a continuing medical education (CME) programme organised at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here on Tuesday, Dr Paresh Mohanty, senior consultant microbiologist, Integrated Reference Laboratory (IRL) at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack said 2.7 million of the world’s 10 million patients lived in India of whom 64 per cent received treatment in hospitals and wellness centres in the private sector.
“But very little information about TB patients from the private sector facilities were percolating down to the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) and the government was unable to notify those patients. It makes detection of cases at the national level difficult,” Dr Mohanty said.
However, he said Catridge-based Nuclei Acid Amplification Test (CBNAAT) machines have greatly strengthened the battle against TB in India. “CBNAAT has come as a boon for treatment of tuberculosis and all the districts of Odisha have at least one such machine in place which can diagnose drug resistant TB within a few hours,” Dr Mohanty said.
While the World Health Organisation (WHO) had fixed a target to eradicate TB from the face of the earth by 2030, the Central government is taking steps to wipe out the disease from the country five years earlier, he said.
The central government was implementing the NTEP consolidating a series of rapid and progressive advancements taken up under the earlier Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) since January 1, 2020, he added.
Dr Sarada Prasanna Mishra, Medical Officer, NTEP; Prof Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of IMS and SUM Hospital; Prof Banani Jena, Head of department of Pulmonary Medicine and Prof. Rakhi Ludam, Professor in the department also spoke at the programme.
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