Govt call to panchayats to eliminate TB by 2025
Kolkata: The state government will start a new programme — TB Mukt Panchayat — from March 2024 to eliminate tuberculosis from Bengal by 2025.
A health official said a tie-up with the panchayats had been planned as the latter provide special ration to TB patients. The aim is to empower the panchayat system to realise the problems associated with TB and take necessary action in solving them.
According to the plan, all panchayats have to provide additional nutritional as well as social support to the TB patients along with employment through MNREGA, which is under the purview of the gram pradhans.
The DHS has already written to the DMs and CMOHs of all districts for rolling out the ‘TB Mukt Panchayat’ initiative. The panchayats have been asked to work closely with the district TB officers. The DHS has asked block-level officials to take the initiative along with the ADMs for preparatory activities like convergence meetings, training, assessment process and asked for completion of all field activities by December, 2023.
It has been proposed that the ‘TB Mukt Panchayat’ initiative may be an agenda for the fourth Saturday in the gram panchayat convergence meetings involving para medical health workers like ASHA, ANM, CHO and also the panchayat members. Before that, the panchayat members will be given training on TB awareness.
Panchayat members will be made aware that all TB cases are not contagious. Other than lungs, TB can also affect bones, brain, bladder and genitals. The survey for ‘TB Mukt Panchayat’ will start in January, 2024, and the results will be out by March, 2024.
Source – ETHealth World
