Efforts are being made for the last almost 60 years to control TB in India, yet it remains a serious problem. Robert Cock discovered the TB bacterium on March 24, 1882, which proved to be a milestone in the understanding and treatment of this disease. That's why TB is also called 'cock's disease'. About one crore people suffer from this disease every year in the world, out of which 29 lakhs are from India. TB of the lungs is called pulmonary TB and TB of other parts of the body is called extrapulmonary TB. About 80 percent of the patients in India are related to pulmonary TB.
Campaign against tuberculosis
On March 13, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to make the country TB-free by 2025. Since then, schemes such as Nikshay Poshan Yojana, an extension of TB notification, an active TB search campaign, etc. were started. Along with this, facilities like free examination, treatment, and nutrition allowance of Rs. 500 per month were also started for TB patients. Private doctors also started to participate in the national program of TB eradication. In 2020, the name of the national program was changed to 'National TB Elimination Program'.
What kind of problems are coming
There are many reasons for not being able to eradicate TB, such as TB bacteria can remain dormant in the body for many years without any symptoms. When favorable conditions arise, it reactivates and causes disease. Social and human factors are also barriers, such as malnutrition, HIV, diabetes, early and repeated pregnancies among women, purdah system, smoking, and other intoxicants, lack of cleanliness, denial of benefits of health services, etc.
How to take care of treatment
Get treatment from doctors. Regular analysis and monitoring of the patient are necessary during the treatment. TB patients often stop or irregularly adjust the medicines after seeing the benefit of the initial treatment. Due to this, the complex form of TB becomes MDR TB / XDR TB, which is difficult to treat.
