Kerala will soon become the first tuberculosis-free State in the country, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja has said.
The Health Department and the State TB Cell have organised intensive action plans so that while all other States in the country are aiming at TB elimination by 2025, Kerala will achieve the same by 2020, she said here on Wednesday while inaugurating a State-wide house-to-house survey being launched by the State TB Cell.
The house-to-house visits by trained health workers for TB awareness creation and survey on TB was kicked off from the official residence of the Health Minister herself.
As part of the action plan to eliminate TB, 78,000 trained health workers are being engaged by the State TB Cell to visit approximately 78 lakh houses between January and March this year to generate awareness on TB and to find out if there are any circumstances in the house/locality which may make the residents vulnerable to TB infection.
As diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases are prominent causes of mortality amongst TB patients, the survey will also collect information on such conditions. The Minister appealed to the public to cooperate with the health workers visiting houses.
Additional Director of Health Services P. Raju, State TB Officer M. Sunilkumar, and RNTCP-WHO consultant Shibu Balakrishnan were present at the inauguration.
