Significant achievement in curing TB in Haryana

By Haryananewswire

CHANDIGARH,  APRIL 16  

Haryana has achieved a success rate of 86.46 per cent for curing those suffering from tuberculosis. Also, the percentage of conversion of positive sputum cases into negative is 90.3. 

          While stating this today, a spokesman of the Health Department said that at present under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), the State has 50 Tuberculosis units, 244 Designated Microscopy Centres (DMC) and 7532 DOT Centres or providers.

          He said that with a view to ensure effective implementation of RNTCP in Haryana, paediatric patient wise boxes are being provided free for children suffering from TB for Directly Observed Treatment (DOTS) and for Paediatrics Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB) cases in all the 21 districts of the State. TB diagnostic and treatment facilities are absolutely free of cost in all the Government hospitals in the State. He said that Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant TB (PMDT) free services for the diagnosis and treatment of Multi Drug Resistant TB cases have also been implemented in all the districts of the state. 

He said that the State Government has a plan to involve five more medical colleges in RNTCP drive to provide free diagnostic (sputum microscopy) and treatment services like DOTS and DOTS PLUS to TB patients as per RNTCP guidelines. At present only four medical colleges namely Pt. B.D.S. PGIMS, Rohtak, MM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (MMIMSR), Mullana, Medical College Agroha and S.G.T. Medical College, Gurgaon are engaged in this drive. 

The spokesman said that Haryana Government’s Public Health laboratory at Karnal has been upgraded to state level intermediate reference laboratory for testing multi drug resistant TB cases and is accredited under RNTCP by the Government of India. It is providing free diagnostic services to multi drug resistant cases besides providing quality training to RNTCP key staff. It has been upgraded to molecular level known as Line Probe Assay (LPA). Hence, it enables us to report the sensitivity pattern of TB within 72 hours. Project Nikshay, a web based case based online TB cases entry system has been ensured and 91 per cent online TB cases entry has been registered till date, he added.

 Intensified TB-HIV package has been launched in Haryana as TB and HIV tends to fuel each other. All HIV infected TB patients are referred to Anti Retroviral Therapy Centre for evaluation and treatment, he added.