Two days ago, the End-TB Summit took place in Delhi where PM Modi launched the campaign to eradicate TB by 2025. After attending the summit, Rajasthan Health Minister Kalicharan Saraf said that the state is working towards the mission of eliminating tuberculosis completely.
He said that a present, 283 TB units are functional in 33 districts and rural areas of Jaipur. Also, there are more than 2,000 TB treatment centers including 848 microscopy centers where patients are provided free services of treatment and test facilities. Not just at the state level but the problem of TB is a serious concern for the entire country. The center has even issued a national strategic plan for eliminating TB from India.
End TB-Summit (Courtesy: Twitter)
As per National Strategic Plan, millions of Indians are exposed to latent TB infection that may get re-activated any time. This is because of decades of unrestrained transmission. A significant proportion of the population is undernourished, which in turn, weakens immunity and drives TB reactivation.
The situation is so grave that despite the data suggesting a decline in the number of cases, India is the highest TB burden country in the world when it comes to the absolute number of incidences each year. Mortality because of TB is the third leading cause of years of life lost in India.
As far as the state is concerned, officials claim that Rajasthan has a higher average than the national average of detecting and treating Tuberculosis patients. In order to counter the challenge of multidrug-resistant TB, the health department has developed a network of 48 CB-NAAT laboratories. Every month, on an average, 6,566 tests are conducted in these labs.
