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The long fight against TB

 Tuberculosis (TB) in India is estimated at 200-300 cases per 100,000 population per year.
 As a comparison, in western Europe it is five per 100,000 per year.
 Tuberculosis is caused …?
 India‟s estimated annualTB burden is 28 lakh, 27% of the global total; our population is only
18%. Every day 1,200 Indians die ofTB — 10 every three minutes.
 The tragedy 1,200 families face every day is beyond imagination.
 No other disease or calamity has such Himalayan magnitude.
 TB capital of the world
 “Control” in public health is “deliberate reduction of incidence to a desired and defined level by specific interventions”.
 Without monitoring incidence and defining the desired target, the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) is not a valid control programme, but a great humanitarian programme of free diagnosis and treatment
 TB can affect the lungs, brain, bones, joints, the liver, intestines or for that matter any
organ and can progress slowly or kill in weeks.
 Confusing doctors and delaying diagnosis
 DesigningTB control three processes must be understood:
 Infection,
 Progression,
 Transmission
 Infection occurs whenTB bacilli are inhaled.
 Bacilli may stay in the lungs or travel to other organs.
 Infection is lifel
Cumulatively, 40% to 70% of us are living with latentTB.
 From this reservoir pool, a few progress toTB disease, one by one, 5-30 years, average 20 years
 Progression occurs when bacilli become active, multiply and cause pathology;
 Now we have “active TB”.
 Only when activeTB affects the lungs do bacilli find an exit route to the atmosphere, necessary for transmission.
 Principles of control
 All of us, the public, health-care professionals, Health Ministry policy planners and implementers, must form a united battlefront.
 Beginning with schools, public education onTB
 Transmission and infection are ends of a tunnel.
 If no one spits in public places and if everyone practises cough and sneeze etiquette
(covering one‟s mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing)-TB affected will also fall in line
Some 70% of people seek health care in the private sector.
As cough is a very common symptom of many diseases, doctors don‟t think ofTB
until other treatments fail
Frustrated patients also shop around until someone thinks ofTB
While treatment is the patient‟s urgent need, it will not controlTB.
It is like shutting the stable door
Partnership with the private sector is essential for early diagnosis ofTB
Every country that has reducedTB incidence practises universal health care.
Experts recommend an age window of 5-10 years when all children
must be screened withTST-Tuberculin SkinTest
 Those with latentTB must be treated to prevent progression.
Now or never
We must intercept infection, progression and transmission.
Our only chance of victory is by the concerted use of all interventions —
1)-Biomedical and
2)-Socio-behavioural.
Any further delay may convert a controllable disease into an uncontrollable one,
Because of increasing frequency of resistance to drugs againstTB.

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

Page-1-TDP moves no-confidence motion after quitting NDA
Speaker refuses to take up notices moved by A.P. parties citing lack of order
Telugu Desam Party (TDP)
We joined the alliance with the expectation that our people would get justice.
We hoped that our State would get fair treatment
Page-1-Won‟t touch Ram Sethu: govt. to SC
„Will explore alternative route‟
‘Hawking saidVedic theory is superior’
Union Science Minister HarshVardhan said the late cosmologist, Stephen
Hawking, had said theVedas had a “theory” superior to that of Albert Einstein‟s
famous equation e=mc2.
Mr.Vardhan was speaking at the 105th edition of the Indian Science Congress, organised at Manipur University
Page-1- A weight-loss formula for school bags
Karnataka asks students for ideas on how to reduce the weight of their school bags
„Spread science among children‟
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday requested that all of India‟s scientists spend 100 hours with 100 children every year.
This would accelerate the spread of science in society, he said at the 105th Indian Science Congress.
„Can‟t compare Sri Lankan refugees and Rohingya‟
The Centre has told the Supreme Court.