Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Health Sudhir Tripathy has directed the officials to develop and disseminate communication materials on TB among the masses. Tripathy was speaking during the first meeting of the State Task Force on TB under the chairmanship Tripathy organized by the State Tuberculosis Cell (STC) on Friday.
“There must be clear messages on TB for each department,” said Tripathy. He also emphasized on the need of generating awareness on TB across the state in association with other departments.
The objective of the meeting was the mainstreaming of TB in alignment with other government departments with the aim of achieving government’s vision of eliminating TB from the State by 2025.
Jharkhand is the first State in the country to set-up a State Task Force (STF) on TB, which was set up last year under the chairmanship of Tripathy. REACH, a non-profit organization implementing the TB Call to Action Project supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was instrumental in the formation of STF in the state.The meeting was attended by the officials of labor department, Social Welfare Department, Mining Department, Drug Directorate, Jharkhand State AIDS Control Society (JSACS), NCD Cell, Indian Medical Association (IMA) and development partners.Tripathy stressed on private sector notification at the meeting and directed the Drug Directorate and IMA to support STC in increasing private sector notification by engaging pharmacies and private practitioners.
NHM Mission Director K.N Jha suggested setting-up of Designated Microscopy Centers (DMCs) at all MESO hospitals, which come under the Welfare department. “MESO Hospitals can be instrumental in TB testing in tribal areas,” he said.
Members of the task force also discussed the requirement of support from ESIC Hospitals of the labor department for TB testing in their facilities.
The participants brainstormed on other ways to mainstream Tuberculosis. The ACS asked the various departments to plan proposals for specific tasks for the next STF meeting. Giving suggestions on future meetings, he also said, “STF meeting can be done at divisional level for better outreach”.
The meeting was attended by the Mission Director, NHM, KN Jha; Director In chief, Health services, Dr. Sumant Mishra; State TB Officer, Dr. Raj Kumar Beck; Joint Director Drugs, Surendra Prasad and development partners from REACH, the Union, and Care. The meeting was held at RCH Campus Namkum, Ranchi.