Heal the breaths: State to set up 100 TB camps in 19 dists from Dec

Kolkata: To eradicate tuberculosis (TB) by 2026, the state government is going to run more than 100 camps and screening centres in health centres, district hospitals and medical colleges in 19 districts for four months starting this December.

One of the main objectives of the move is to bring back the dropout patients in the camps so that they receive proper treatment.

The decision regarding camps has been taken in a meeting held in Swasthya Bhavan with the officers of the National TB Control Programme. The Centre has set a target of transforming the country as ‘TB free’ by 2026.

The Centre has recently sent a letter to the state health department in this regard where it was stated that camps on TB will be carried out across the country.

The Centre would help the state governments by providing funds and infrastructure. Medicines will also be provided by the Central government as mentioned in the letter.

The state governments will only have to identify the new TB patients and register their names on ‘Nikashay’ portal and also bring them under treatment.

Incidentally, the Centre had shown a lackadaisical attitude in providing funds under the programme to the Bengal government last year. As a result, the state government on its own carried out the programme. The Centre had stopped the supply of Tuberculosis (TB) medicines prompting the state government to arrange crores of funds to emergency handle the situation.

Treatment of around 1.5 lakh patients would have been stopped if the state had not intervened. The State Health department had procured medicines at an estimated cost of a few crores of rupees.

The experts in the field said that the Centre is bound to give medicines to the patients free of cost as TB is a “notified” disease. If a patient is detected with TB, the name has to be included in the website of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP).

The state government had launched a telemedicine service for the treatment of TB patients. The medical officers at the telemedicine-enabled hubs in the portal Swasthya Sathi Ingit provide tele-consultation services to TB patients or presumptive TB cases attending telemedicine-enabled Su-Swasthya Kendras.