The much hyped phrase ‘health for all’ has lost its sheen and meaning with tuberculosis, once synonymous with death and completely curable today, staging a comeback on a large scale, killing people indiscriminately.
The ever increasing TB has made a mockery of the 60th anniversary celebrations of India’s Independence.
Despite launching National Tuberculosis Programme way back in 1962 and the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in 1997, the fastest infecting scourge is nowhere near control, let alone its eradication.
The worst affected are people from the lower strata of the society; however TB does not make any discrimination either social or economic in its attack.
In India everyday 40,000 people become newly infected with tubercle bacilli, more than 5,000 develop the disease and more than a thousand die of it. Every one-and-a-half minute a death occurs due to TB.
Proves costly
TB caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a barrier to socio-economic development and costs the country more than Rs 12,000 crore per year.
According to an official report of the RNTCP the greatest burden of TB incidence and mortality in India is in adults aged 15 to 60 years which include the most productive members of the society.
Spreads fast
TB kills more women than all causes of maternal mortality.
 The fallout of TB infection is alarming. Every year due to TB more than 17 crore work days are lost, nearly 3 lakh schoolchildren dropout from schools and more than one lakh women are rejected by their families.
Gulbarga is said to be one of the high prone TB districts in the country. Despite vigorous launch of the Directly Observed Treatment, short-course chemotherapy (DOTs) the recurrence of the scourge could not be prevented.
The DOT involves administration of drugs by a designated person, who is not a relative of the patient in the village for the entire course.
“Dropout of patients from treatment is a major concern in the effective control of TB,’’ said District TB Control Officer Dr Sharanabasappa Ganjalkhed.
DMCs
Designated Microscopic Centres (DMC) have been opened at 36 places in the district at the rate of one DMC per one lakh population.
DMCs having trained personnel will perform sputum test to detect TB positive and accordingly treat patients.
Persistent cough with sputum lasting for about three weeks accompanied by fever, weight loss, sweating and loss of appetite are the symptoms of TB.
One of the major challenges in countering TB is the lack of private participation in the national programme.
A large number of patients take treatment with private doctors and several of them discontinue their treatment adding to the ever expanding pool of infected.
There is no arrangement even to take account of the number of patients taking treatment in private sector paving way for TB to thrive.