With Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging people to go for an early check-up in case of tuberculosis (TB)-like symptoms in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address, top medical professionals in the city said a lot more needs to be done to generate awareness about the disease and patients should maintain consistency during treatment.
The PM, in the 18th edition of his monthly radio address, noted that March 24 is observed as World TB Day and threw light on initiatives undertaken by the Centre in this regard. According to the New Delhi TB Centre, there are 55,000 TB patients in the Capital, of which 2,000 have multi-drug resistant TB.
“In Delhi, there has been a reduction in TB cases in the past two years. The Bedaquiline drug for multi-drug resistant TB patients will be introduced at two centres in Delhi – Rajan Babu TB Centre and National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory disease,” said Ashwini Khanna, state TB officer.
The figure provided by Khanna, however, includes patients, who are only registered in government hospitals.
According to Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), over 50 per cent of TB patients still preferred treatment at private hospitals.
Swaminathan added late diagnosis and not taking complete treatment for a minimum of six months has worsened the condition of patients. She said large number of migrant population coming to Delhi for livelihood added to the challenge.
Among the major research projects on TB, Swaminathan said a project that could reduce the minimum treatment time from six months to four is in progress. She added that the ICMR was also working with major pharmaceutical companies to develop cost-effective anti-TB drugs.
Pulmonologist Dr MS Kanwar said that anyone can contract TB and the treatment must be meticulous and regular. He listed fever, cough, physical weakness, loss of weight and sometimes blood in sputum as the initial symptoms of the disease.