High number of TB cases in district

With 2,500 tuberculosis patients, Ernakulam district tops in the number of TB patients in the State. Efforts are on to identify patients who are not taking any treatment for the disease.

District TB Officer Anoop P.K. on Tuesday said that the district also topped with 49 out of the 250 cases of drug resistant tuberculosis. Most of the cases were being detected from the corporation area.

In order to control the spread of tuberculosis, it was important to find the people who were carriers or patients who were not taking any treatment. A carrier could infect 10-15 people a year, said Dr. Anoop.

Around 1,000 people die everyday due to TB in the country. Hence, the revised national tuberculosis control programme focuses on the follow-up of TB patients on a daily basis.

Even though the case detection rate of 75 per cent and cure rate of 85 per cent in Kerala were above the targets of the national programme, elimination of TB cases called for more awareness, said the co-ordinator of the TB awareness programme at the Government Medical College, Anitha Thilakan.

The district health department, in association with the medical college, and IMA, Kalamassery, held an awareness programme to mark World TB Day on Tuesday. Dr. Haseena Mohammed, district medical officer, inaugurated the programme.