Legislators to be sensitized on TB
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, June 16 2012: Recognising the need for political commitment towards eradication of Tuberculosis (TB), Manipur State TB Society, Manipur State TB NGO Forum and Global Health Advocate, India would be jointly organizing a day-long advocacy workshop on TB care and control in Manipur for MPs, Ministers and MLAs on June 19 at Hotel Classic.

Announcing this at a press meeting at his Lamphelpat office today, State TB Officer Dr RK Laksana Singh stressed on the need for political and administrative commitment towards eradication of TB and observed that Tuberculosis (TB) is more dangerous than HIV as it can be spread easily.

A single TB patient can infect 10 or more people in a year.

Although TB is 100 percent curable today, treatment should be taken for the prescribed duration, which in most cases is a minimum of 6 months.

However, it has been seen that with most patients feeling better after the first 1 or 2 months of treatment, they stopped the treatment due to various reasons like poverty and unemployment.

Therefore, just providing anti-TB medication s not sufficient to ensure cure of the patients, Dr Laksana noted.

He explained that Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course (DOTS) being implemented under the Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP) has been developed to diagnose and treat infectious TB patients effectively till cure by ensuring administration and use of the full course of drug at free of cost and under the DOTS providers' vigilance.

DOTS can prevent emergence of Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDRTB), which resists anti-TB drugs and require 2 to 15 years of treatment costing around Rs 2 lakhs.

The State TB Officer disclosed that out of 73 cases of MDRTB sent for testing, 28 cases are confirmed, and out of these confirmed cases, 23 MDRTB patients are currently undergoing treatment in Manipur.

At present there are 53 DMCs for testing TB, 888 DOTS providers and 13 TB Blocks in the state.

A DOTS plus unit is also under construction at JNIMS.

TB is being tested at Intermediate Reference Lab, RD Wing Lamphelpat and the reports are sent to National Reference Lab in Delhi for necessary processing, which normally takes around 3 months.

However, with LP it can be detected within 72 hours, he added.

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