World TB Day to be observed on Mar 28
TB claims 1000 lives daily in India
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, March 22 2014 : Tuberculosis (TB) claims 1000 lives daily in India which is roughly two deaths in every three minutes, said State TB Officer Dr Y Gopalkrishna Singh.

Talking to media persons at the conference hall of State Training and Demonstration Centre (STDR), RD Wing Complex located at Lamphelpat here today, Dr Gopalkrishna further said that March 28 is observed as "World TB Day" every year since 1982.The State TB Cell would also observe the World TB Day under the theme "Reach the Three Million.

Find, treat and cure TB" .

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

It is a notifiable disease and it continues to be a major public health problem.

It poses serious health consequences if not treated properly.

TB disease is further complicated with ever increasing prevalence of HIV and diabetes in most community.

TB among HIV infected individuals is extremely dangerous, the State TB Officer noted.

He further maintained that early diagnosis and accurate treatment can also prevent emergence of DR-TB and XDR-TB in the community.

Spread of TB cannot be controlled mostly due to ignorance.

Mass awareness is vital in the fight against TB, Dr Gopalkrishna added.

The world TB Day is a global effort to find, treat and cure the 3 million TB patients and accelerate progress towards zero TB death, infection, suffering and stigma.

Certain additional facilities have been provided in our state for treatment of TB.

For diagnosis of the disease, new machines and equipments have been made available like Fluorescent Microscopy, Solid Culture (LJ media) > 900 cultures and CBNAAT: Molecular techniques: (August, 2013) > 100 tests.

The construction of the treatment site for drug resistant TB at Churachandpur is completed while at JNIMS, the site for the same is under construction which started in 2010.As such, TB patients are facing a lot of inconveniences due to the delay in construction work.

Under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), the number of TB cases detected in the year 2013 was 1941 and in the year 2012 it was 2291.The number of patients treated successfully with TB was 2379 in 2013 and 2677 in 2012.The total number of TB patients put under treatment was 2341 compared to 2744 in 2012.The number of deaths arising out of TB in 2013 decreased to 72 compared to 80 in 2012 .

The improvement seen in the treatment type and decreasing of death cases suffering from TB is due to the awareness programmes organized to give sufficient knowledge of treatments and precautions to prevent it.

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