The fact that eradication of tuberculosis in India is a huge challenge has to be accepted and steps should be taken accordingly to battle this menace, Dr Sachidananda Mohanty, Odisha’s Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) said on Thursday.

“The diagnosis of tuberculosis cases in the eastern region has remained very low and there is a need for accelerated efforts to fight this battle,” he said.

Dr Mohanty was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day Zonal Task Force Workshop for the East Zone which began at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here.

Underlining the need for better infrastructure, proper diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis patients and availability of specialists, he said these held the key to eradicate the disease from the eastern region.

Dr Mohanty pointed out that false reports on diagnosis of tuberculosis cases and the reluctance of people to visit TB wards were posing to be hurdles in the battle against the disease.

Addressing the workshop, Dr Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Medical Superintendent of IMS and SUM Hospital, said that extra pulmonary TB cases where the disease was found in other parts of the body except the lungs were also found during the screening. Such cases, however, were receiving proper treatment in the multi-speciality IMS and SUM Hospital because of the availability of specialists.

IMS and SUM Hospital was ahead of other healthcare centres in diagnosis of tuberculosis cases in the state, he said.

Dr SK Shahi, ZTF Chair, East Zone, welcomed the participants while stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a call to eradicate tuberculosis from the country by 2025.

Dr Prasanta Kumar Hota, Special Task Force Officer, said the medical colleges had a big role to play in the battle against TB while emphasizing that the district administration and medical colleges had to maintain proper coordination in this regard.

The workshop was also addressed by Dr Ashok Bharadwaj, Chairperson of NTF, Dr Sanjay Mattoo, Additional Deputy Director General, Central TB Division and Prof Banani Jena, Head of Department, Pulmonary Medicine, IMS and SUM Hospital.