Health and Family Welfare Minister Damodar Rout on Sunday said the State Government is taking all possible measures to make Odisha a State free of death due to tuberculosis (TB) under the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP).
The identification rate of new TB patients in the State is 60 per cent while the recovery rate stands at 88 per cent. Similarly, nearly 50,000 TB patients are being identified annually, said Dr Rout at a meeting held to observe the World Tuberculosis Day.
He said that as many as 49,192 TB patients were identified in the State by December 2012. Out of them, 35,000 recovered from the disease after getting proper treatment.
The present identification rate of new TB patients and the recovery rate are very significant steps towards a TB-free society, said Dr Rout, adding that efforts are on to take the identification rate of new patients up to 70 per cent.