Can Nagaland eliminate TB 5 years ahead of global time line?

March 24, 2021 47 Views No Comment

Ketholeno Neihu
Kohima | March 23

Five years ahead of the global time line, Nagaland has embarked in a journey of eliminating Tuberculosis by 2025. The communicable yet curable disease however remains a major health issue requiring urgent attention on areas including awareness and education for which ‘early diagnosis, complete and appropriate treatment is key to combating TB.

Gaps in rate of detected cases
As per records from Nikshay- a case based, web enabled TB programme management system, one of the major areas of concern for the state of Nagaland point towards the gaps in rate of detected cases to those that loses to ‘follow up’ or are ‘not evaluated’ in the long run considering the fact that the treatment duration is considerably long and runs from 6-10 months for pulmonary/ extra pulmonary forms of TB or 9 months to 2 years in the case of Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB.

As such, from 2017 till date, Nagaland state maintained that a total of 16804 cases were notified from both private and public hospitals/ health centres. Out of this, it also recorded that 4819 cases had recovered or cured pushing the success rate from 75% in 2017 to 90% in 2019. The state had 385 cases of TB deaths.

In the category of “lost to follow up” and “not evaluated” cases, the number stands at 563 and 1935 subsequently for which there may be more cases of deaths or elevated cases. Other records mentioned includes the number of treatment completed, the number of treatment that has changed regimen etc.

92% success rate by 2025
Nagaland will be completing 20 years since the launching of the National Tuberculosis Elimination
Programme (NTEP) on December 1, 2021 and with the government facilitating free of cost diagnosis and treatment of any form of TB while providing financial and nutritional benefits, and giving constant monitoring of the TB patients, Nagaland has set its target to achieve 92% success rate by 2025.

As per information from the State TB Officer Dr Robin Lotha, since the inception of the programme, 57,815 patients have been put on treatment. Accessibility and availability has also been put on priority with the presence of 52 Microscopy Centres set up across the State in various sub divisions, both in urban and rural areas. Among others, there are 11 District TB Centres, 10 CBNAAT machines and 2 Drug Resistance TB centres where free investigation and treatment are provided to all including Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB.

He also stated that priority is being given to upping services in the part of the health service providers while involving all Village councils, TB survivors, Churches, NGOs to disseminate information on TB; mapping of vulnerable population and conduct active case finding among them; involvement of notification of all TB cases from the private facilities (Clinics, Chemists, Laboratories); collaboration with other TB morbidities such as HIV, Diabetes, Tobacco etc.

The TB officer also shared the importance of proper counseling of patient at the start and also during treatment and strengthening of supervision by Health Staff of treatment Supporters and patient’s homes while having timely follow up of sputum examination

Nagaland to observe World TB Day
National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP), Nagaland will be observing the World TB Day all over the districts and also at the State level. An update from Dr Robin Lotha, State TB Officer (NTEP), Directorate of Health & Family Welfare informed that activities such as awareness on TB at schools, colleges, with villagers, prisons and also orientation meetings with religious leaders, NGOs etc followed by mask selfie campaigns will be conducted on March 24.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/can-nagaland-eliminate-tb-5-years-ahead-of-global-time-line