In a major thrust to address the growing incidence of tuberculosis (TB) and drug resistant TB in the country, the Ministry of Health in association with the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA) recently released a training module for community pharmacists under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP).

This programme will mainly focus on exploring the role of community pharmacists by training them exclusively to deliver best TB care and control services for the patients. The content of the module that was released in mid February this year is similar to RNTCP training module for multi purpose workers, however modified to adapt for training of pharmacists in the country and will be initially implemented in five states namely, Jharkhand, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal and later on to other states.

It is understood that the government is soon to start the training programme in  Gujarat and Jharkhand marking the start of this programme. According to Manjeeri Gharat, vice-president and chairperson of Community Pharmacy Division, IPA this  initiative will act as a huge boost to develop the scope of community pharmacists in the country as a key player in addressing major issues like TB as this is the first time that the pharmacists are engaged in any national health programme in the country.

“This module is developed by experts from CTD and IPA after thorough research and analysis so as to ensure that pharmacists in the country are well sensitised and trained about the modalities required to ensure best TB control. The module focuses on training the pharmacists to identify and refer TB suspects for early diagnosis and treatment to prevent further spread of the infection. Pharmacists will also be trained to provide free anti-TB medicines under RNTCP, counsel the patients for creating community awareness about TB and DOTS. The module will also equip them to be an efficient and effective counsellors to the patients as counselling is a major part of community pharmacy,” Gharat pointed out.

The module also gives detailed information on the global and Indian TB scenario so as to enable the pharmacists to understand basics of TB and drug resistant TB along with understanding the principles and strategy RNTCP and Directly Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS). The priority of this programme will be to highlight the role of pharmacist in generating community awareness on TB, identification and referral of TB suspects, DOT provision, recording and  reporting and rational use of  anti TB drugs.

According to Gharat this initiative is a follow up of the MoU signed last year in April 2012, between the Central TB Division (CTD), IPA, AIOCD, SEARPharm Forum and PCI for engaging the pharmacists in TB care and control. As a result of this, CTD now has released the training manual jointly developed with IPA and further plans to role out its pharmacist partnership with IPA, AIOCD, NGOs supported by Lilly MDR TB Partnership, of Eli Lilly and Company Foundation.