As many as 5590 patients have been diagnosed of tuberculosis (TB) during 2017 in Chandigarh. The success rate of TB patients undergoing treatment is 91 per cent in the city.
Disclosing this on World TB Day was observed on Thursday, an official spokesperson said the 5590 patients have been diagnosed during the year 2017 against the target of 3480 given by the Central TB Division, thereby achieving a target of 158 percent. “Chandigarh Administration is committed to control the tuberculosis disease in Union Territory (UT) Chandigarh,” the spokesperson said.
These TB patients were diagnosed in the health facilities comprising of government and private sector. The diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis/ Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is being provided free of cost at all the government health institutes.
In Chandigarh, the DOTS Plus Site for MDR Cases (the programmatic management of Drug Resistant TB) has been set up at GMCH-32, Chandigarh.
The DOTS Plus Site of Chandigarh is also catering to five Districts of Haryana — Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Kaithal.
Chandigarh has been adjudged as first among UTs in the country, the spokesperson said.
World TB Day was observed today at Employees State Insurance, Dispensary, Sector-29, Chandigarh, catering to 109340 number of insured persons with 546700 number of beneficiaries.
On the occasion, the home secretary-cum-health secretary, Anurag Agarwal, flagged off the Mobile Van for Active TB Case Finding given by the Union government.
The van is fully equipped with Gene Xpert for doing advanced test for TB at the door step of the patients in order to screen the population residing in the urban slums and rehabilitation colonies of Chandigarh in order to make Chandigarh free from tuberculosis in the coming years.