The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Training for medical officers begins

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Wednesday, Dec 15, 2010
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Training for medical officers begins

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: The national-level training programme on DOTS Plus, for the management of Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB), for the medical officers in five States started here on Tuesday.

The State capital was chosen to be one of the national-level training centres — the fourth in the country — for DOTS Plus by the Central TB Division on the basis of the State's capacity, efficiency and experience in managing TB. The State has been offering the DOTS Plus treatment for MDR TB for the last two years and it also has a fully-equipped TB Lab with WHO-endorsed diagnostic tools.

“We will be offering training to the State and District TB officers as well as selected medical faculty from the medical colleges in five States — Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry and Karnataka — in managing MDR TB. The first batch which began their training here has 37 doctors,” a senior Health official said.

The plan is to offer one training programme every quarter, he added. The training programme was formally inaugurated by Special Secretary (Health) K.S. Srinivas. Kerala, which became the first State in the country to offer DOTS Plus treatment for MDR TB free of cost across the State, took a major step forward last year when it decided to enhance the diagnostic capacity of the TB lab as it would improve MDR TB management. The current drug sensitivity and culture tests takes about two to four months before the diagnosis of MDR TB can be confirmed.

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