Guwahati: In line with its mission to make the state “tuberculosis free” by the year 2025, the Assam health department is raising the bar when it comes to notification and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) cases.
Over the past three years, there has been a perceptible emphasis in the notification and treatment of TB cases in the state.
Notably, as against 38,097 notified TB patients in the year 2021, Assam has been able to achieve 47984 TB cases notified and treated in 2022.
In 2023, the state is targeting to notify and treat more than 60,000 TB cases.
Addressing the zonal task force meeting of the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) for medical colleges in the North East Region here on Monday, National Health Mission (NHM) Assam director M. S. Lakshmi Priya underlined the role of primary, secondary and tertiary care health institutions in increasing tuberculosis (TB) case notification and implementing the TB Preventive Therapy (TPT) extensively towards a “TB-free Assam”.
The NHM Assam mission director further said that special measures have been taken by NHM Assam for increasing TB notification from primary, secondary and tertiary health institutions in the state.
NHM Assam, through its community-based approach, is actively working for building capacity of the caregivers at all levels, including providing support for community-based research to add value for the policies towards achieving our TB Free India target by 2025 as envisaged by the Prime Minister.
“Special measures have been taken by NHM Assam for increasing TB notification from primary, secondary and tertiary health institutions in the state. The first point of contact for diagnosis and treatment at the community level are the community health officers (CHOs) who have been sensitised through training in all the health and wellness centres (HWCs) to provide all TB services (diagnosis, detection and treatment),” she said.
State-of-the-art diagnostic tools for TB diagnosis namely TrueNaat/CBNAAT is currently available in all the district hospitals and most of the block level health facilities of the state.
The intermediate reference laboratory (IRL) has been actively operationalised in Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) for most of the latest diagnostic methods of TB detection free of cost.
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Advanced TB cases can be detected and proper management through medicines can be done at the centre.
The NHM mission director further appealed to the people to come forward and avail the diagnosis and treatment facilities regarding TB that are available at all levels of health institutions in the state.
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