LUCKNOW: After bringing encephalitis under control, the state government on Wednesday pledged to make Uttar Pradesh free of tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, reports Shailvee Sharda.
Addressing a programme to mark World TB Day at Vidyagyan School in Sitapur, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “Tuberculosis is a threat but it can be defeated. If Uttar Pradesh can beat polio and combat encephalitis, TB can also be eradicated.” The CM also launched facilities to strengthen the on-going battle against TB which affects more than one lakh people in UP every year.
He called upon public representatives, government officials, civil society and people from all walks of life to join hands in battle against TB. “The least one can do is to adopt a child who has tuberculosis. This doesn’t mean that one will have to bring that child home. It involves tracking the health of children, asking them if they are taking medicines on time, enquiring from parents if their entitled nutritional support amount is regular or not and giving the child hope that they can overcome the disease by following the advice of doctors,” he said.
Yogi also appealed to people undergoing treatment for TB to ensure that they complete the course of treatment which is provided free of cost at government health centres. “No one should be required to motivate the patient. You must fight back on your own. Breaking the course of medicine is an open invitation to a worsened form of the disease and life-threatening complications must be highlighted by the family, society and health system,” he said. The CM emphasised that the battle against TB could not be won unless private sector participates more aggressively.
The CM virtually inaugurated the Regional TB Programme Management Unit in Gorakhpur and dedicated line probe assay (technology to decipher drug resistant TB) labs in Gorakhpur and Meerut Medical Colleges, 415 Trunat machines for faster TB testing in districts and 25 digital X-ray machines in districts.
He also felicitated district tuberculosis officers Pradeep Varshney (Rampur), Vinod Agarwal (Sonbhadra), Narendra Singh (Unnao), Deenanath Mishra (Chandauli) and Vivek Srivastava (Maharajganj) for exemplary work against TB in 2020.
The foundation of drug ware houses was also laid in 21 districts including Sitapur, Mirzapur, Sambhal, Pratapgarh, Hapur, Ballia, Fatehpur, Basti, Rae Bareli, Farrukhabad, Auraiya, Barabanki and Varanasi, among others.
‘70k PMAY houses built in Sitapur’: CM Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that Sitapur district got record houses built under the PM Awas Yojana. “As many as 7,01,594 houses have been built under the scheme till March 1, 2021. Out of these, 70,000 houses were constructed in Sitapur alone,” he said.
‘Kayakalp transforming primary schools’: The CM said the image of government schools in the state was changing with the progress of Mission Kayakalp. “Under ‘Operation Kayakalp’, over 1.58 lakh schools have been developed and equipped with modern facilities,” he said, adding that enrolment of students in primary schools increased because of the programme.