“If you want to fight tuberculosis, it has to be done keeping the patient at the centre of discussion. For too long now, TB has been viewed as a problem of a select group. TB is everyone’s problem and it has to be tackled understanding the patient’s viewpoint,” said Lucica Ditiu, executive director, Stop TB Partnership.
She was speaking at the Countdown-2025: A TB Centrestage Discussion, and REACH Media Awards, held in the Capital on Thursday.
TB elimination goal
Also present was Eric Goosby, the UN Special Envoy for TB and Tuberculosis and chair of the Lancet Commission on TB, who congratulated Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s resolve to fight TB by advancing the country’s TB elimination goal by five years to 2025.
“We are very optimistic about this new resolve of the Prime Minister,” said Nalini Krishnan, director of REACH, a non-government organisation working in the area of TB control.
However, she added, this was also an opportunity to analyse what else needs to be done in the area of TB control.
The event, organised by REACH in partnership with Lancet Commission on TB, also saw the release of a book “Keeping TB in the News”, a toolkit for health advocates to work with the media on public health issues like TB.
Awards
Meanwhile, REACH Awards 2017-18 were won by Sakshi Kuchroo and Geetanjali Minhas from Governance Now on their story “How caregivers are falling prey to TB”. Annual award for best reporting on TB (other language) was won by Anand Tiwari from Prabhat Khabar, among others.
The event also saw participation by Mark A. White, Mission Director, USAID/ India; Sunil Khaparde, DDG (TB), Central TB Division, Union Health Ministry; and Arun Jha, Economic Adviser, Union Health Ministry.
