The Hindu : Awareness campaign to be launched on TB Day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kannur

Awareness campaign to be launched on TB Day

By Our Staff Reporter

KANNUR, MARCH 22. The Tuberculosis Day on March 24 will be observed with local-level campaign in different parts of the district to create public awareness on the disease and mobilise the people in the ongoing drive to eradicate it.

The Health officials involved in the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in the district said at a press conference here today that a district-level rally and public function to mark the day would be held at Payyannur under the auspices of the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in the afternoon.

The district-level inauguration of the Tuberculosis Day programme would be inaugurated by the District Collector, K. S. Sreenivas, at the Community Health Centre at Azhikode here at 10 a.m. Similar functions along with classes and contests would be organised at Iritty, Koothuparamba and Thalassery, they said. TB patients who had been cured would also participate in the rallies and meetings, they said.

P.K. Janardhanan Nair, the WHO consultant for the RNTCP for the northern districts, said at the press conference that the TB Day theme was `Every breath counts, stop TB now'. It was in March 24, 1882 a German scientist had announced the discovery of the mico bacterium tuberculosis, he said. Dr. Nair said that pulmonary tuberculosis, which was being easily transmitted, was a major health issue in the country as it accounts for 30 per cent of the total TB patients in the world.

The Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) now being adopted for the treatment of the disease had now helped reduce the default rate in treatment , D. Surendranath, the DOTS Medical Officer at the PMCH, said. Under the DOTS system, the treatment of a patient would be under the direct observation of a local health worker who would be the DOTS provider.

The duration of the treatment would be between six and nine months, he said adding that the treatment was totally free. The DOTS would also be an effective way of checking patients becoming multi-drug resistant due to incompletion of the treatment course, Dr. Surendranath said.

The District TB Centre Medical Officer, P.R. Jayasree, said that the main symptom of the disease was continuous coughing for over three weeks. Those who had the symptom should get their sputum tested freely at 20 Government health facilities including hospitals and public health centres and the PMCH as well as in over 50 private hospitals and laboratories in the district. DOTS treatment would also be available at these facilities, Dr. Jayasree said.

They said that the cure rate had also increased as a result of DOTS.

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Awareness campaign to be launched on TB Day