Lack of awareness, facilities resulted in low TB detection rate
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, July 26 2011: The Tuberculosis(TB) detection rate is still low in Manipur comparing to the national detection level.

It's because of lack of awareness,facilities and poor communication due to geographical location.

This was disclosed by the State Tuberculosis Officer Dr O Manihar (Retd) on the sideline of the day long consultation meeting for recommendations on greater care and control of TB in Sadar hills under Manipur's Senapati district at Manipur Press Club today.

The consultation which was attended many representatives of the various NGOs and social organisations based in Senapati district was organized by Institute of Rural Development and Training Centre under the sponsorship of Global Health Advocates(GHA) .

The state has so far achieved an average of 60 percent TB detection rate against the 70 percent national detection rate since the launching of Revised National TB Control Programme(RNTCP) nine years ago,Dr Manihar added.

Dr Sapana Naveen and Christo Mathew of GHA which had organized similar consultation programmes in Thoubal district on July 5 last also spoke during the day's interaction session.

Interestingly Senapati,Tamenglong and Chandel have the low detection rate comparing to other remaining districts.

Tribals dominated Senapati has recorded only about 50 percent detection rate in the recent past.It has just 28 percent detection rate last year against state's average of around 64 per cent.

Information Education and Communication officer K Deben of State TB Cell who also attended the consultation meet speaking to this reporter informed that the multi-drug resistance (MDR)rate is also high in Senapati comparing to other districts of the state.

On the other hand Kuki-Chin-Zomi dominated Churachandpur district has the largest number of children having Tuberculosis cases comparing to other districts of the state.

"We're yet to ascertain the main cause of it",the official said.

"However we're providing necessary help and assistance to the needy people" .

So far more than 1000 TB patients have been given free medication under the state TB cell.

According to official records, as many as 31,471 TB patients were given proper treatment out of 37,420 cases detected in the year 2009.One thousand people die daily due to TB which is caused by bacilli called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.

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