TB cell recognises DTCs as hot spot area for conducting AFC
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, January 18 2023:
Considering the vulnerability of people who use drugs and those living with HIV to tuberculosis, the State TB cell is considering to recognise drug treatment centres (DTCs) as one of the hot spot areas for conducting active case finding (AFC) for TB.
The decision to this effect was arrived at during the one day state level consultation on "Exploring options and opportunities of TB Cell-NGOs collaboration for TB elimination by 2025" organised by Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE) at Imphal Hotel, North AOC, here, on Wednesday.
The consultation also stressed on the need to organise awareness on tuberculosis on a mass scale with the collaboration of NGOs considering the high level of stigma and discrimination associated with the disease.
The consultation meet which was attended by officials of state and district TB cells and representatives of drug treatment centres and positive networks, had State TB Officer Dr W Sashee Singh and PMDT-TB/HV coordinator Meikam Saroja as the resource persons.
The discussion and interactive session of the meet which was moderated by Dr H Diamond Sharma of MSACS also adopted a number of resolutions which include - recognition of TDCs as hot spots for conducting AFC on TB, organising TB awareness programmes on a massive scale with the collaboration of NGOs, service providers of ART centres including counsellors, pharmacists and nurses to be trained on Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT and Latent TB infection under state TB cell, conducting follow-up meeting of NGOs and TB cell on TB-HIV co-infection on a regular basis, NGOs to pressure authority concerned for initiation of 3HP in the state at the earliest and cooperation to be provided by NGOs for those TB patients enrolled under the state TB cell for HB testing.
Speaking as resource person on national TB elimination program (NTEP), provisions available under it and areas where it can collaborate with NGOs to achieve TB elimination target, Dr W Sashee informed that TB has become a problematic disease with the coming of HIV and it was it 1993 that the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it as a global emergency and new strategies to control TB were developed and targeted to eliminate TB by 2030 by reducing incidence rate of TB by 80 percent with 2015 as base year.
In India, under the initiative of PM Narendra Modi, NTEP aims to strategically reduce TB burden by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
On September 9, 2022, the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukht Bharat Abhiyan was launched with an aim to bring together all community stakeholders to support those on TB treatment, bring down the catastrophic expenditures and accelerate the country's progress towards TB elimination, he added.
Imphal West district TB officer Dr L Sanjoy Singh, who was also present during the function, highlighted the gaps and challenges in NTEP implementation in the district, along with pointing out the issue of lack of manpower and utilisation of its existing staff in other areas.
He also urged NGOs to extend cooperation while collecting data of people for initiating treatment in private hospitals and through ART centres under MSACS.
Earlier, delivering the key note address, CoNE president RK Nalinikanta informed that TB is considered as the 13th leading cause of death and second highest disease after COVID-19.But it seems people are hardly concerned about this infectious disease resulting in many unfamiliar with TB prevention programme taken up by the central government.
HIV, tobacco, diabetes and malnutrition are some of the most common co-morbidities associated with TB.
Therefore, it is important to identify these co morbidities in people diagnosed with TB in order to ensure early diagnosis and improve co-management, he explained.
RK Nalinikanta also emphasised that considering the impact TB has on the people who use drugs and the people living with HIV, it is imperative for all sections including the NGOs to come forward and help the government in raising awareness, testing, diagnosing and treating patients effectively for TB and ultimately contribute towards achieving TB elimination by 2025.He also informed that the state level consultation meet has been organised primarily to understand the provisions available under NTEP and to explore various options on how State TB Cell can collaborate with NGOs so as to contribute towards achieving TB elimination by 2025 .
Comment
