Now, 'Nikshay Mithras' for lending community support to TB patients

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to make India free from Tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, as many as 2,644 people have become Nikshay Mithras (donors) by adopting 26,669 TB patients.

As part of ‘Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan’ launched on September 9 2022, these TB patients are adopted under “Community support to TB patients” programme.

As many as 12,746 TB patients have been detected in the state so far since January this year, while it was 80,409 in 2022; 72,714 patients in 2021; 65,978 in 2020 and 91,480 patients in 2019. At present, among 38,346 TB patients (including old patients) who are on treatment, 29,178 patients have given their consent for adoption.

Top four districts with the highest number of TB cases include Bengaluru (5,484), Raichur (2,502), Belagavi (2,315) and Mysuru (1,990). Highest (3,329) TB patients are adopted by 211 Nikshay Mithras/donors in Bengaluru; 1,852 patients are adopted by 28 people in Raichur; 1,672 patients are adopted by 89 people in Belagavi and 1,629 patients are adopted by 17 people in Mysuru.

Also Read | TB incidence and mortality reduction: India way off its own target

Governor of Karnataka Thaawar Chand Gehlot has adopted 100 TB patients including 10 from Mysuru district while Rajya Sabha MP Lehar Singh Siroya has adopted 500 TB patients. Also, Health Commissioner D Randeep, Mysuru district health officer Dr K H Prasad, Mysuru district TB officer Dr Mohammed Shiraz Ahmed and others have all adopted TB patients. Jeevitha enterprises, a private firm, has adopted 80 tribal TB patients in Mysuru district.

“Nikshay Mitras not only provide financial assistance but also lend a huge moral support to TB patients. We need more Nikshay Mitras to step in and support TB patients to achieve the goal of TB Mukt Bharat,” Randeep said.

Dr Mohammed Shiraz Ahmed, who has adopted 20 TB patients said that earlier TB was found only among socio-economically weaker section and it was now prevalent among all sections of society. Mycobacterium tuberculosis - the bacterium which causes TB, spreads via air and every untreated patient can infect 10 to 15 people in the community. More than one crore people are affected with TB worldwide and 26.7% of them are in India. “The government bears the cost of treatment up to Rs two lakh per patient and the treatment period stretches from six to 18 months in some complicated cases. So, the support extended by donors in terms of ration kits, nutrition supplements and others is helpful to patients.”

Raju (name changed), a TB patient, said that he missed his daily wage work for long due to TB. “The ration kits given by Nikshay Mitra helped to manage my family during such time,” he added. Shanthi (name changed), another TB patient, said that the nutritional supplements provided to her by Nikshay Mitra helped her a lot.

Anyone interested can adopt TB patients via Nikshay 2.0 website (community support.nikshay.in). The duration of adoption is six months, one year, two year or three years.

Dr Ahmed said that anyone having cough with sputum (sometimes associated with blood), chest pain, fever during evening, sweating during night, weight loss, loss of appetite - for more than two weeks can visit any government health facilities for free diagnosis of TB and avail of treatment free of cost. Rapid molecular test is also done to check drug sensitivity resistance to prevent relapse of TB.