Nagpur: Central government has made tuberculosis (TB) a notifiable disease since March 19 this year. All doctors treating TB patients are expected to inform the public health departments about every TB patient they find and treat. In case of failure to report, the doctors can face 6 months to 2 years imprisonment.
The government had made TB a notifiable disease but somehow the directives were not implemented. Hence this time the government has come out with the imprisonment clause, said Dr Radha Munje, professor and head of the respiratory medicine department at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH).
Dr Munje was speaking at a World TB Day programme organized by the Vidarbha Chest Association. Talking about the multidrug resistant TB (MDR) she said that now across the country Bedaquiline and Delamanid will be given to all MDR patients. “First fifteen days the patient should take a 400 mg tablet while for next six months one should take a 200 mg tablet twice a day,” she said.
Despite significant progress over the last decades, TB continues to be the top infectious killer disease worldwide, claiming over 4,500 lives a day. The emergence of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) poses a major health threat and could put at risk gains made in efforts to end TB.
Dr Ravindra Sarnaik of Vidarbha Chest Association said that as per WHO’s Global TB burden 2017 report, the annual incidence of TB in India is 27,90,000 (211/lakh). Annually 4,35,000 people die of TB (33/lakh). The estimated burden of MDR TB is 1,47,000 (11/ lakh population).
Dr Rajesh Swarnakar, a chest physician and Vidarbha Chest Association member said that the 2014 National Sample Survey showed that 70% of patients visit private practitioners. The government has currently initiated a good public-private partnership programme under Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP). Here the private practitioner will be expected to provide free treatment to all TB patients. The medicines too will be given free of cost by the chemists.
