Centre identifies 75 tribal districts for focused TB interventions

Subject :Government Schemes

Section: Health

Aashwasan Campaign

The campaign to detect TB cases across 174 tribal districts started this January under the Aashwasan Campaign, under which door-to-door screening was done in over 68,000 villages. Official data showed that 3,82,811 people were identified for presumptive TB after a verbal screening of over 1.03 crore people in these villages.
The Aashwasan Campaign was undertaken by the Tribal Affairs and Health Ministries and supported by USAID (United States Agency for International Development) as a technical partner and Piramal Swasthya as the implementing partner.

Steps Taken by India:

India has committed to eliminating TB in the country by 2025.
- Five years ahead of the global deadline of 2030.
National Strategy Plan for TB Elimination 2017-2025:
- The requirements for moving towards TB elimination in India have been arranged in four strategic areas of Detect, Treat, Prevent & Build.
- There is also across all four areas, an overarching theme of the Private Sector. Another overarching theme is that of Key Populations.
TB Harega Desh Jeetega Campaign, Nikshay Poshan Yojana, etc.

Global Efforts:

The End TB Strategy of WHO.
World Tuberculosis (TB) Day is observed on 24^th March to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB.

Nikshay Poshan Yojana (NPY)

The NPY was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
It aims to support every Tuberculosis (TB) Patient by providing a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of Rs 500 per month for nutritional needs.

The Saksham Project

It is a project of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) that has been providing psycho-social counselling to DR-TB patients.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs.
Transmission: TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air.
Symptoms: Cough with sputum and blood at times, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats.
Treatment: TB is treatable and curable disease. It is treated with a standard 6 month course of 4 antimicrobial drugs that are provided with information, supervision and support to the patient by a health worker or trained volunteer.
Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a form of TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most powerful, first-line anti-TB drugs. MDR-TB is treatable and curable by using second-line drugs.
Extensively drug resistant TB (XDR TB) is a rare type of MDR TB that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, plus any fluoroquinolone and at least one of three injectable second-line drugs (i.e., amikacin, kanamycin, or capreomycin).