Rajeshwar Tiwari, principal secretary, department of health and family welfare, government of Telangana, has urged the private sector organisations to work in tandem with the government to ensure the TB control services reach all the needy patients in the country.

While addressing a 3-day revised national TB control programme (RNTCP), Tiwari said that every year more than 35,000 people in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh are contracting TB in both the states. This figure is more than 25 lakhs in the country and to annul this menace without spreading further, both the state and central government along with the private organizations must work in coordination and see that the TB control services reaches all needy TB patients in the country. “We need to evolve a strategy and move ahead with a motto of Zero TB Deaths (ZTBD) for our TB control programme. Continuous research will also help in identifying and addressing the gaps in TB control,” observed Rajeshwar Tiwari.

The 3-day RNTCP programme (24-26th August) was attended by all the State TB officers and TB consultants from across the country at Hyderabad International Convention center (HICC) in Hyderabad.

Stressing on close collaboration between the HIV and TB control programs, Dr. Dharma Rao, Joint Secretary, NACO said, “Use of technology and intensive supervision at the grassroots level is key for the success.” He said government of India is initiating the TB surveillance studies shortly. At present treating a patient suffering from drug resistant TB strains takes more than two years. In view of this experts felt on the need of reducing this treatment duration from 2 years to 9 months. “Shortly the government is planning to introduce shorter duration of treatment down to 9 months from the present 2 years and this will help in better treatment adherence,” replied Dr. Sunil Khaparde, Deputy Director General, Central TB Division, government of India.

Dr. Sunil Khaparde said the TB control program is adopting the latest technologies with regard to the diagnosis of drug resistant TB. He informed that in a major initiative from the government of India about 500 rapid diagnostic machines for diagnosis of drug resistant TB are being supplied to all the districts of the country.

Dr Ch. Surya Prakash, joint director (TB), Telangana informed that the program in Telangana is providing double nutrition to the pediatric TB cases. He also informed that the services for the rapid diagnosis of drug resistant TB are available in all the districts of the state. He said the machinery is supplied by the government of India costing approximately Rs.20 lakhs.