Med colleges & hosps asked to set up Drug Resistant TB wards

kolkata: The state Health department has issued advisories to all medical colleges and hospitals asking them to set up a Drug Resistant TB ward in each hospital. It was also directed that the number of daily TB tests must be increased at outpatient departments (OPDs).

The decision has been taken as a part of the state government's programme of elimination of tuberculosis in Bengal by 2025. The advisory has been sent to the principals of all the medical colleges, stating that any suspected patients coming to the hospital for check-up must undergo rapid sputum test and chest X-ray should also be performed on them.

The number of TB TrueNat tests must be increased every month, states the new advisory. All the medical colleges have also been directed to inform Swasthya Bhawan within 24 hours in case of a patient's death. The hospitals will also have to upload prescriptions and the treatment related details of the patients on the Health department portal. The Death review committee of the Health department will also carry out a probe into the death of the patient.

The District Magistrates in all the districts were already asked to improve the existing infrastructure related to the treatment, community support to TB patients. A senior Health official said that the Bengal government was committed to achieve 'TB Mukto Bangla' (Elimination of TB from the state) by 2025. "A robust state strategic plan for elimination of TB is in place, which is based on four pillars i.e. detect, treat, prevent and build. As a last mile momentum in achieving our goal of elimination of TB by 2025, this advisory may help in monitoring the quality of TB care and services provided at the field level in terms of case notification, diagnosis, treatment adherence, community support and reduction of TB morbidity and mortality," the official added.

According to the state Health department figure, in India for every 2.8 TB cases prevalent in the community one case gets notified and 1.8 cases get missed. Pulmonary TB is the most infectious type of TB that transmits infection in the community, which needs to be diagnosed early to break the chain of transmission, the advisory further stated. It may be mentioned here that East Midnapore had already been nominated in the gold category by the Centre and Nadia in the bronze category as both the districts had shown remarkable progress towards the elimination of TB.