Table of Contents
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.