After the AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) has emerged as a major killer disease in Ganjam district as more than 200 people die every year in the disease. It was informed by a senior medical officer of the district on the sidelines of a meeting held here to observe the World TB Day on Tuesday.
The officer said, “TB and HIV are co-related and we have given much stress on the TB control as it has the highest number of HIV-positive cases in the State.”
District TB officer Ananda Samantara said district’s percentage of death in the disease is calculated at three to four per cent as against five per cent in national average. However, he said, the death rate due to the disease in the district was not alarming as compared to the national average.
The Revised Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was being implemented in the district with an aim to check the disease through Directly Observed Treatment Short course Strategy (DOTS) since February 16, 2004. Besides the DOTS Plus, a Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB programme was implemented in the district since April 1, 2009.
Official reports said 4748 tuberculosis cases were registered in the district in 2014 as against 4496 in 2013 and 5338 in 2012. Similarly the number of death in the disease in the district was registered at 221 in 2014, they said.
The co-infected (TB with HIV) cases in the district also increased. While 246 such patients were detected in 2013, their number rose to 307 in 2014, the reports said.
The number of patients increased in the district because more people visited to the TB units, Samantara said.