Ram Joshi, Additional Municipal Commissioner, on Tuesday inaugurated a joint tuberculosis and leprosy detection drive which was launched in city under National Tuberculosis Eradication Programme and National Leprosy Programme the campaign at the Diagnosis and Research Centre, Sadar. The search operation will run from December 1 to December 16.On Tuesday, 433 teams from the Tuberculosis Society surveyed 21,841 people and found four suspicious patients and they will be examined and further treatment will be given. Joshi appealed to the members of the Corporation’s City Tuberculosis Control Society to search for tuberculosis and leprosy patients in the community and initiate their treatment. He appealed to the people to cooperate with civic teams during the campaign.
Due to the pandemic situation owing to outbreak of COVID-19 in city, the number of tuberculosis and leprosy patients diagnosed and the number of tuberculosis and leprosy patients treated came down drastically as compared to the previous several years. In this context, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare proposed various measures for early diagnosis of patients. According to pathological studies, if a patient with tuberculosis and leprosy is deprived of diagnosis and treatment, the patient will have to face a lot of complications from the disease, as well as there is a possibility of spread to other people in his contact.
Therefore, the objective of the campaigns to find out all theTB patients and leprosy patients in the society and start their treatment. Therefore, the campaign is aimed at the most vulnerable populations (e.g.slums,vagrants nomadic tribes, migrant workers as well as miners, social groups, as well as prisons, old age homes, ashrams and hostels, tribal children’s hostels, psychiatric hospitals, etc.). Under this drive, Asha Swayam sevak and trained volunteers will visit the houses in the notified area and scan people for symptoms of the disease.
