The Active Tuberculosis Case Finding Campaign kicked up in three high burden districts of Himachal Pradesh today is likely to boost the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in the hill state.

Launched for Solan, Kullu and Mandi districts by HP Health minister, Kaul Singh Thakur, the campaign seeks door to door screening of people in high risk areas for TB with the help of health teams, which will move out in the field from January 16 to 30.

So far, there is passive TB case finding in the state, wherein the patients come to the hospital for their tests. This involves gaps as many people shirk to get tested for TB for the social stigma (especially the women and young girls) in the hill society or are simply ignorant in unawareness. However, in the active case finding campaign, the health teams would visit the population in vulnerable areas (mapped out as 70,000) and enquire about TB symptoms at the doorstep. Based on general symptoms, the team would collect the sputum of the person on the spot and get it tested in the health facility.

In some cases, where the sputum does not indicate TB, the people will be asked to get X-Ray of the chest done. If some abnormality is found, they would be further asked to go for Cartridge Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CBNAAT) for confirmation of TB. “In such cases, the chest X-Ray would be done free of cost in government health institutions as a part of the campaign for 15 days. It is the first phase of the campaign, the second would be taken up in July this year and the third phase in December 2017,”said Health minister, Kaul Singh Thakur.

Thakur said the campaign has been launched for active screening of TB patients in 50 high burden districts of India by Government of India. Out of this, three districts were picked up from HP.

As per official data, around 14,500 fresh cases of TB are registered on an average annually in the government health institutions. Two hundred and fifty cases of Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB were reported for the first time in 2016 in HP after eight machines of CBNAAT were installed in state run hospitals.

Officials say the number of TB cases reported in a year may go up to 20,000 at a point of time if the patients going to private hospitals are included.

Even though eight of the twelve districts of HP formed part of top 30 districts of the country, which had high annual TB case notification rate (more than 180 new TB cases per lakh population per year) as per 2015 data, the TB experts in the state contest that this is because testing and detection has increased in the hill state despite tough terrain.

“The number of presumptive TB cases tested per lakh population per quarter in Himachal is 300 against the national average of 178,” the experts shared.