The National Health Mission (NHM) has instructed that treatment must begin for all tuberculosis cases that are notified.
Contact screening and treatment for tuberculosis (TB) must also be initiated. The patients’ bank accounts must also be linked for direct bank transfers, the NHM said, following a review meeting held recently.
The NHM has developed an algorithm to test vulnerable populations. It has mandated the mapping of people visiting public and private health facilities for treatment. The Chief Health Officer of Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has been informed that “the current mapping is significantly less than the actual population”.
People covered under the Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam scheme will be identified and sent to a health sub-centre from where they will be mapped to the primary health centre concerned.
The asymptomatic, vulnerable population must be referred for a chest x-ray and tracked or followed up. Meanwhile, all symptomatic persons must undergo x-ray and sputum testing. They must also be tested using smear microscopy/NAAT. The results, in both cases, must be entered in the Nikshay Shivir portal.
At a review meeting held to mark the 100 days of TB elimination campaign ‘Nikshay Shivir’, the NHM announced that a central team from the Union Health Ministry would visit Madurai and Dindigul to monitor the campaign.
All district health officers and deputy directors were directed to identify and map vulnerable population at the grassroot levels, especially at the health sub-centre level.
The district health officers of the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine were instructed to maintain a line list of vulnerable population at the health sub-centre level. They were also asked to map slum and tribal populations and submit the data.
DPH officials must ensure that all symptomatic individuals in private institutions are tested. Lab technicians in medical college hospitals are responsible for entering details in the portal of all symptomatic individuals screened for TB in the outpatient departments.
Deputy directors are expected to bring all private health facilities under the Clinical Establishments Act. They will also be trained to enter details of TB cases into the portal.
At the district level, participants may request the district collectors for CSR funds to carry on the campaign, NHM officials said.
Published – December 30, 2024 02:25 am IST
