A mobile TB screening van has started touring the district from Monday onwards.
Joint Director of Health Services Fareeda Shirin flagged off the mobile CBNAAT (Cartridge Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test) vehicle, which has been equipped to diagnose TB within two hours.
The CBNAAT vehicle, which started its tour of all 32 districts in the State on February 4, reached Thoothukudi on Sunday after visiting 23 districts.
The van toured Pudukottai and areas within the Corporation limits on Monday. It would be visiting Perilovanpatti near Ettayapuram on Tuesday, Ettayapuram and Kadalayur on Wednesday, Kadambur and Kovilpatti Urban on Thursday, Arumuganeri and Kayalpattinam town on Friday, before concluding the tour at Thenthiruperai and Sattankulam on Saturday.
Currently, a permanent CBNAAT lab is located at the Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital and District Headquarters hospital, Kovilpatti.
Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme staff will visit urban slums, industrial workers, high case load areas, HIV infected groups and all the contacts of TB patients to collect sputum and hand them over to the mobile CBNAAT vehicle. Pamphlets would be distributed in all the Government health institutions as well as in leading pharmacies about the facility of CBNAAT diagnosis free of cost.
“Currently TB incidence is declining by about 1-2% per year and to achieve the TB elimination goal by 2025, we need to have a decline in TB incidence by about 15-20% annually. For this, we need to maximize the utilization of CBNAAT lab in our district, said Deputy Director (TB) K. Sundaralingam, in a press release.
Deputy Director of Health Services Geetharani was present.
