kolkata: As a part of its programme of elimination of tuberculosis in Bengal by 2025, state Health department on Friday issued an advisory to the District Magistrates of all the districts asking them to improve the existing infrastructure related to the treatment, community support to TB patients.
Bengal is 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/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," reads the advisory. 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 said.
It may be mentioned here that Centre in March nominated East Midnapore in the gold category and Nadia in the bronze category as the two districts of Bengal had seen remarkable progress towards the elimination of tuberculosis (TB) and are well on the way to achieving the target by 2025. This was a significant development in the state towards achieving TB free Bengal, a dream project of the Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee.