The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and pharmaceutical major Lupin on Friday started an active-case-finding (ACF) mission to diagnose and cure patients suffering from tuberculosis in the city.
Over 3,000 community health volunteers from BMC’s TB department will spread out across 24 high-risk wards in the city find looking for patients suspected of having TB. Once identified, the patients will be integrated with the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. Senior doctors said that the findings from the year-long project would be used to build a replicable model that would have a national impact.
Dr. Jaideep Bhaduri, vice-president, Health Care Projects, Lupin, said, “Why should we put the onus on the government when we can achieve the community outreach necessary to eradicate this disease. In our country, TB goes undetected for a long time and leads to 15 people being infected while the one should have been cured.”
Lupin, the world’s largest manufacturer of anti-TB drugs, conducted a one-year pilot study for ACF in Shivaji Nagar and Bainganwadi between August 2014 and July 2015. The study yielded positive results and the BMC agreed to begin a pilot project in 2016. The city-wide campaign aims to further the World Health Organization’s vision for a TB-free world by 2035.
Dr. Dhananjay Bakhle, executive vice-president, Medical Research, Lupin, said, “We have managed to reduce costs to ₹2 per person since the cost is mainly restricted to training personnel in diagnostic methods. The system for cure is already in place owing to government-provided Directly Observed Treatment centres.”