The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rs. 40-lakh laboratory planned to improve TB treatment facilities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rs. 40-lakh laboratory planned to improve TB treatment facilities

Staff Reporter

Decision follows reports of drug resistance: Health Secretary The decision follows reports of drug resistance, says Health Secretary

INFOTAINMENT: REACH volunteers presented a skit to mark the World Tuberculosis Day at a function held on Saturday. Also seen in the picture (from right) are actor Suriya, Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj and Rajivan Krishnaswami, Senior Urban Developme nt Specialist, World Bank. — PHOTO: R.RAGU.

CHENNAI: A Rs. 40-lakh laboratory has been proposed to improve treatment facilities for tuberculosis following reports of drug resistance, according to Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj.

He was speaking at a programme organised by the Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health (REACH) here on Saturday, the World Tuberculosis Day. It was on March 24, 1882 that scientist Robert Koch presented his discovery of TB bacillus to a group of doctors in Berlin.

The State has 11,000 DOT providers, including health volunteers in various levels, Mr. Subburaj said. Medicines, costing Rs. 5,000 for the entire course of treatment, were supplied free by the Centre. Yet, awareness of the need to continue the treatment was low. By completing the course that lasted six months, a person would be cured, but often people gave it up and put not only their lives but also those of at least 15-20 others at risk by spreading the disease. In India, four lakh people died every year from the disease. In Tamil Nadu, 5,000 people died, he said after releasing a short film on the disease.

Rajivan Krishnaswami, senior urban development specialist, World Bank, who released the NGO's souvenir, said its partnership with Chennai Corporation was significant, given that most of the poor in urban areas lived in unhygienic conditions. Without their being empowered, the lower-level government employees, who were given the responsibility, could not do well, he said. He praised the volunteers for spreading awareness through a public-private partnership.

Actor Suriya, who distributed coupon books on TB awareness to volunteers, said when he agreed to act in the film, he had not been aware of the seriousness of the disease. A friend died of the disease in her late 30s. "She was a software professional but she had no knowledge of the disease."

Nalini Krishnan, Director-Projects, REACH, welcomed the gathering.

The Chest Foundation of India organised a poster exhibition and distributed pamphlets at the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus in the morning.

Free sputum tests were conducted, with the help of Corporation officials, for those wishing to be screened for the disease. Messages about the illness were shown on the closed circuit television.

Mayor M. Subramanian released an awareness poster and gave away prizes to school students who won essay contests on TB control.

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