Health authorities will soon put on riot gear to bring down the incidence of tuberculosis and make the city free of the disease by end of the decade, officals announced on Monday.
Officials of the state health department, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), WHO and NGOs met at the state secretariat to finalise plans to detect cases and initiate treatment at an early stage. "We are planning to have mobile vans that will do chest x-rays, collect specimens and give results the same day. The local health authorities will ensure these patients get treated for the disease," said ICMR director Dr Soumya Swaminathan. Voluntary organisations will engage with private practitioners to ensure they notify all TB cases to the government. They will also ensure patients in the private sector don't drop out of treatment midway, increasing risk of drug resistance.
In India, with a quarter of the world's TB cases and deaths, the deaths in 2015 soared to 480,000 from 220,000 in 2014. In Chennai, an estimated 203 people out of every 100,000 have the disease. "We usually have about 17,000 cases in Chennai. Of these, only 9,000 cases are notified to the government...," said health secretary J Radhakrishnan.
After the Centre declared TB a notifiable disease in 2012, a study in 2016 showed seven of 10 private doctors in Chennai kept their patient's TB status secret. They are required to report it to the corporation health department. Of 190 private practitioners surveyed by the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, a mere 33% reported their patients had TB. More than 40% were sent to government hospitals for treatment.
The disease is transmitted through air and usually affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts, including spine, brain and kidneys.
Patients are given first-line drugs for up to nine months. Although treatment is free in most government hospitals, many skip it leading to resistance. Statistics show that at least 1 in 25 TB patients has XDR-TB, a short form of extremely drug resistant tuberculosis. They are not cured even with the second line of drugs and about one in five patients has a threat of this treatment failing.
Officials of the state health department, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), WHO and NGOs met at the state secretariat to finalise plans to detect cases and initiate treatment at an early stage. "We are planning to have mobile vans that will do chest x-rays, collect specimens and give results the same day. The local health authorities will ensure these patients get treated for the disease," said ICMR director Dr Soumya Swaminathan. Voluntary organisations will engage with private practitioners to ensure they notify all TB cases to the government. They will also ensure patients in the private sector don't drop out of treatment midway, increasing risk of drug resistance.
In India, with a quarter of the world's TB cases and deaths, the deaths in 2015 soared to 480,000 from 220,000 in 2014. In Chennai, an estimated 203 people out of every 100,000 have the disease. "We usually have about 17,000 cases in Chennai. Of these, only 9,000 cases are notified to the government...," said health secretary J Radhakrishnan.
After the Centre declared TB a notifiable disease in 2012, a study in 2016 showed seven of 10 private doctors in Chennai kept their patient's TB status secret. They are required to report it to the corporation health department. Of 190 private practitioners surveyed by the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, a mere 33% reported their patients had TB. More than 40% were sent to government hospitals for treatment.
The disease is transmitted through air and usually affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts, including spine, brain and kidneys.
Patients are given first-line drugs for up to nine months. Although treatment is free in most government hospitals, many skip it leading to resistance. Statistics show that at least 1 in 25 TB patients has XDR-TB, a short form of extremely drug resistant tuberculosis. They are not cured even with the second line of drugs and about one in five patients has a threat of this treatment failing.