To make Haryana, a Tuberculosis (TB) free State, Chief Minister Manohar lal and renowned actor Amitabh Bachchan on Friday launched a ‘Mission TB-free Haryana’ at Gurgaon.
The mission will cover Haryana in three phases and Rewari, Gurgaon, Mewat, Palwal, Mahendergarh, Faridabad and Jhajjar will be covered in the first phase.
Two mobile vans were flagged off under the Mission. The ‘TB free Haryana’ van is well equipped with chest X-Ray machines and other equipments.
The vans launched on Friday will patrol around the State to identify the people suffering from TB.
Apart from Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal and actor Amitabh Bachchan, US ambassador to India Richard Verma, Joint Secretary, Union Health and Family Welfare, Anshu Prakash and famous Cardiologist Dr Naresh Trehan were also present at the event.
Speaking at the event, Haryana Chief Minister said that TB is a big health problem in the country and India has the largest number of TB patients in the world.
He said that on an average about four lakh people die of TB every year in India. In Haryana, the figure is of 2000. For making the State free from TB, modified National TB Control Programme has been implemented.
About 2 lakh suspected cases of TB were being examined in the hospitals of Haryana every year, out of which after diagnosis about 40,000 patients were given medicines. As many as 119 TB Units, 260 Microscopic Centers and 8245 DOTS Centers were functional under the Programme at the State level, said he.
The Chief Minister said that many programmes were implemented in the country like Polio Free India, leprosy Free India which went successfully. Similarly, TB-Free programme was initially launched in Maharashtra and now in Haryana. In this way, the entire country would become TB-free gradually.
He added that the treatment of TB is possible merely at `3000 and for providing treatment facilities to the poor families, the Government would work on PPP model, involving the private players.
Manohar lal said that he has been told by Dr Naresh Trehan that 6-7 affluent people have expressed interest in working on PPP Model.
Talking about Government’s aim to improve health services, the Chief Minister said that a Super Specialty Hospital in the name of Kalpana Chawla would become operational soon in Karnal. Haryana Government aims at adding 2000 new doctors every year for which the Government has planned to open a medical college in each district of the State.
Informing about the health care facilities provided at the general hospitals in the State, he said that a trauma center at a distance of 50 to 60 kilometers on the highways passing through the State is planned so that the number of deaths in accidents can be reduced.
Earlier, actor Amitabh Bachchan said that he personally feels related to the cause as he has suffered through the disease way back in 2000.
He said that he has successfully won the battle with TB and is fully cured now. “Anyone can get afflicted with TB irrespective of the surroundings and I am one such example. If my endorsement for the cause can help safeguarding health of the people, I shall willingly be part of this campaign,” he added.
Talking about the ‘Beti Bachao Abhiyan’, the actor said that he is willing to be associated with the campaign in Haryana and is ready to help the State in saving the girl child.