The Government’s four-year-old project launched in collaboration with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) with an aim to sensitise public against TB faces uncertainty with its private partner threatening to quit over the fund crunch.

The IMA has alleged that of Rs 3.28 crore provided by the global NGO, Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFTAM),  the Union Health Ministry is yet to release around Rs 1.8 crore for programme expenditure including salary to its 26 consultants.

The project is part of the Government’s Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) and funded by the GFTAM.

“The Government is yet to release Rs 1.8 crore because of which we have not paid salary to the consultants appointed with the project. As a result, they (consultants) are losing their interest in the job. Ultimately this is going to affect the programme outcome,” said IMA General Secretary Narendera Saini.

As per the mandate of the project, the experts are tasked with carrying out capacity building  of medical practitioners affiliated with the IMA in 15 states across the country through national and unit workshops and finally through training of committed doctors in each of the project districts.

The IMA has a network of around 2 lakh doctors as its members. Presently, the project is being implemented in States like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Chandigarh.

“The focus at each level is to identify and involve physicians and general doctors who are most likely to influence the desired change, which is to popularise the use of standardised diagnosis and treatment protocols (DOTS) for TB control in the country,” Saini added.

However, in the absence of adequate funds we might have to wrap up the programme two years before its scheduled time period which is 2014, he noted.

Due to stigma and improper drug regiment besides ignorance of private medical sector TB has become one of the leading causes of mortality in India- killing -2 persons every three minute, nearly 1,000 every day.

Saini said that the Government’s apathy in releasing the fund would only hamper the public health programme. “On our part we have so far sensitized around 57,000 doctors but have also set up 30 microscopic centres in the target states for detecting TB patients,” the IMA General Secretary said.