Odisha ranks second in tuberculosis elimination efforts

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha has been ranked second in the country for its efforts towards elimination of tuberculosis (TB) in the State. Four of its districts have found place among the top-10 districts in the country  in terms of TB control.

As per Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Sonepur district has been placed second followed by Deogarh at third, Jagatsinghpur at fifth and Boudh at sixth rank for successful efforts towards TB elimination. 

The states were analysed through nine indicators set by the Ministry. These include the number of patients notified, TB patients with known HIV status, treatment success rate, provision of nutrition, direct benefit transfer, initiation of multi-drug resistant treatment, expenditure and children’s treatment.

Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra said the State government has undertaken several measures for increasing TB case notification, improving diagnostics and testing facilities, providing treatment support to patients and family as well as providing nutritional support and financial incentive. “With continued efforts, we hope to meet the target of elimination of TB in the State by 2025,” he said.

While 2,957 patients had died out of 52,839 notified cases in 2019, of the 39,451 notified TB patients so far this year, 1,931 have succumbed to the disease. As many as 2,592 people had died of TB in 2018 and 2,529 in 2017 out of 47,667 and 51,218 identified patients respectively.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to give incentive to private hospitals treating TB patients in order to scale up notification rate. Initially, it has been decided to provide `1,000 for each TB patient notified by private hospitals and nursing homes.