New Delhi : On the occasion of the World Tuberculosis Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a range of initiatives to eradicate tuberculosis and emphasized the need for public participation in the total eradication of TB. He said that India is working on the target of ending it completely by the year 2025 five years before the global target, at the World TB summit at Varanasi on Friday.
He also highlighted that the government is starting a 3 months treatment programme for the prevention of TB instead of a 6-month course. He informed that earlier, the patients had to take medicines for 6 months every day but now, in the new system, the patient will have to take medicine only once a week.
He also launched various initiatives including the TB-Mukt Panchayat, the official pan-India rollout of a shorter TB Preventive Treatment (TPT), the Family-centric care model for TB and the release of India’s Annual TB Report 2023.
PM also laid the foundation stone of the National Centre for Disease Control and High Containment (BSL) Laboratory here and unveiled the site for Metropolitan Public Health Surveillance Unit (MSU). While speaking at the “One World TB Summit”, held in his Parliamentary constituency in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, PM Modi said India had made appreciable progress in the eradication of Tuberculosis mainly due to public participation.
After launching the TB-Mukt Panchayat initiative, PM asserted that the commitment and the determination with which country dedicated itself to tackling TB after 2014 is ‘unprecedented’. “ It is great initiative and under this campaign, every representative of the village panchayat will take a resolution that their villages will be completely TB- Free.
The India’s efforts are important, the Prime Minister said, as this is a new model for the global war on TB. He elaborated on a multi-pronged approach against TB in the last 9 years.
He listed people’s participation, enhancing nutrition, treatment innovation, tech integration and wellness and prevention such as Fit India, Yoga, and Khelo India type of interventions.
Regarding people’s participation, the Prime Minister talked about the Ni-kshay Mitra Campaign in helping TB patients. He informed that about 10 lakh TB patients have been adopted by citizens and even children aged 1012 years have come forward. Financial help to the TB patient under the programme has reached up to one thousand crore rupees. He termed the movement ‘inspirational’ and expressed happiness that even Pravasi Indians are participating in this.
Noting the major challenge of nutrition for TB patients, the Prime Minister highlighted the contributions of Ni-kshay Mitra Campaign in helping TB patients. He underlined that the government had announced a Direct Benefit Transfer scheme for TB patients in 2018 and as a result, approximately Rs 2000 crores have been directly transferred into their bank accounts for their treatment, where more roughly 75 lakh TB patients have benefitted from this. “Ni-kshay Mitras have now become a new source of energy for all TB patients”, the Prime Minister said.
Noting that it is extremely difficult to arrive at new solutions by practicing outdated ways, the Prime Minister said that the government has worked with new strategies so that TB patients do not fall out of their treatment. He gave examples of initiating the Ayushman Bharat Scheme for the screening and treatment of TB, increasing the number of testing labs in the country and formulating region-specific work policies by targeting cities where the number of TB patients is high. Along similar lines, the Prime Minister informed that a new campaign called ‘TB Mukt Panchayat Abhiyan’ is also being launched today.
Noting the declining number of TB patients and today’s award to Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir, the Prime Minister mentioned another major resolution of India to eliminate TB by 2025 as against the global target of 2030.
He informed that 80 percent of TB medicines are made in India. “I would like that more and more countries get the benefit of all such campaigns, innovations and modern technology of India.
He also noted that India is constantly ready to help every country in need. “Our campaign against TB will be successful only with Sabka Prayas (everyone’s efforts). I believe, our efforts today will strengthen the foundation of our secure future, and we will be in a position to hand over a better world to our future generations.
