The Indian Medical Association (IMA) a national voluntary organization of doctors of the modern scientific system of medicine, today announced various initiatives to achieve the government of India’s vision to ‘End TB’ as a part of joint collaboration with the Central TB Division, Ministry of Health, Government of India(Gol) to reach out to every private doctor and through them, every TB patient in Nagpur and Maharashtra.
President, IMA, Nagpur, Dr Ashish Disawal said, “Maharashtra is one of the states of with the largest number of TB cases in the country. We are working in the right direction to meet the government’s aim to have TB free India by 2025 and it is essential that we utilize resources at our disposal like the NIKSHAY app to achieve this end.
In previous year, 2018, total 9853 cases were notified in Nagpur, out of which 5110 notifications were from public sector and 4373 from the private sectors. The private sector notifications have increased in Maharashtra from 68484 cases in the year 2017 to 267706 cases in the year 2018, states the press release. Indian Medical Association is working rigorously to inform private doctors to notify cases of TB that come to their clinics. They will also find the support required to ensure their patients complete the treatment under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP)”
Notifications of patients through NIKSHAY app will enable private doctors to access the various facilities made available by the Government under the RNTCP for the benefits of the patients seeking care from the private sector, including free diagnosis and drugs tests as per the standards for TB Care in India, as well as the NIKSHAY Poshan Yojana under which every TB patient gets Rs. 500 per month towards the nutrition support till completion of the treatment.
In Nagpur and Maharashtra, IMA is regularly monitoring TB notifications and all districts have conducted meeting with Drug Control officers and Chemist Associations. In addition, IMA is taking innovative steps to promote NIKSHAY app and incentives to improve notification from private sector.
NIKSHAY has been updated to a more user friendly version that is compatible with both web based and app based platforms. Private Doctors can also use other methods including the Government call centre for notification of TB patients and for support and more information.
To encourage the doctors to use the NIKSHAY app, Government has introduced an incentive scheme for the doctors, wherein, the doctors will get Rs 500 on TB notifications and Rs 500 on the report of treatment outcome.
In Maharashtra to support the movement to eliminate TB, the State has established 1520 microscopy centres, 117 cartridge Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CBNAAT) labs, and 12 Culture and Drug Susceptibility Test laboratories across the districts, which enable diagnosis as well as detection of drug resistance and guides in the treatment.
Various IMA End TB Coordinators and District TB officers were prominently present at the occasion.
