With an aim to eliminate Tuberculosis (TB) from India by 2025, Indian Medical Association (IMA) organised a mass awareness programme on occasion of 137th World Tuberculosis day on Sunday and stressed on timely treatment required to end the disease.
A senior IMA official said that the awareness program was simultaneously carried out in all the 1750 branches of IMA throughout India.
“Sensitising the public through such events will be a step closer towards eliminating TB from the country,” he said adding that the program aims to increase awareness about the dreaded disease among the public and the ways to curb down the instances and related mortality and morbidity by 2025.
The highlights of the event were nukkad natak based on tuberculosis theme. “Training sessions was imparted to many “Non Governmental Organisations” (NGO) present on the occasion. Over 500 students, NGO workers and healthcare workers participated in the event,” he said.
“With the recent statistics provided by the WHO, India leads the list of drug-sensitive and multi-drug resistance TB. One of the other vital issues remains the negligence of TB in women, which is under reported. Over 3.2 million women are not only suffering from TB but the mortality rate is also on the higher side.
We need to come forward as a unit to develop strategies that effectively address the impediments in the management of the disease, especially the notification.” said Dr Ramesh Datta, Honorary Finance Secretary.
“The mortality rate last year dropped by 3 per cent. IMA is committed to accomplish the targeted 80 per cent reduction in mortality by 2025. Latent TB is also one of the reasons for the growing number of new cases annually.
While the symptoms are severe in the active stage, the condition still needs treatment with antimicrobial drugs for the complete duration of 9 months.” said Dr Narendra Saini.
For maximizing the outcomes of the initiatives being taken by the Government of India, IMA is on its toes. With regular conduction of CME’s, public awareness programs throughout India for over 6 months are actively on the verge of improving the outcomes, the official said.