Kerala has been able to make several meaningful interventions as far as tuberculosis elimination is concerned and its TB elimination programme, designed as “people’s movement against TB” is one of the globally acclaimed initiatives against TB. In the last six years itself, Kerala has been able to reduce TB transmission by about 40%, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Thursday.
He was speaking at an event, Advancing Kerala’s Fight Against TB, wherein he released a document highlighting the major milestones achieved by Kerala in TB elimination over the past decades, titled “A Path to Wellness: Kerala’s Battle Against TB”.
ICMR’s National TB Prevalence Survey last year had reported that Kerala had the lowest TB transmission rate in the country. The State’s TB incidence rate of 70 (per lakh population) is much lower than the national incidence rate of 199. When it comes to TB mortality rate too, the State rate of 7 (per lakh population) was much lower than the national rate of 34, Mr. Vijayan said.
TB-free panchayats
He said that decentralisation was one of the biggest strengths of the State and that TB elimination task forces were working in 83% grama panchayats in the State. Last year, 60 panchayats had declared themselves TB-free and efforts were on towards creating more TB-free districts, he said.
WHO representative to India, Roderico H. Ofrin, in his address, commended the State for realigning its TB elimination strategy with new research. The WHO will be partnering with the State in R&D in TB diagnostics, treatment as well as preventive measures.
Diabetes-TB link
Dr. Ofrin said the State should leverage its health system by enhancing the role of the block-level public health units in TB elimination. The WHO would also be re-configuring its efforts in the State and working towards integrated programmes for communicable as well as non- communicable diseases because there seemed to be a lot of association and correlation between diseases like diabetes and TB in Kerala .
Integrating digital platforms for better TB management, enhancing genomic surveillance to monitor and respond to TB trends, implementing social benefit packages to reduce TB incidence and mortality and addressing some of the social determinants of TB were some of the strategies ahead, Dr. Ofrin said.
Last mile troubles
He pointed out that while the State was on track to achieving some of the TB elimination goals it had set for itself, the challenges were tougher in the last mile, when the State would have to go into micro details and look at the problems at even the sub-block levels.
Health Minister, Veena George, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rajan Khobragade, the Director of Health Services, KJ Reena, State Mission Director, National Health Mission, Vinay Goyal, also spoke.
A discussion on Bringing Global TB Solutions to Kerala was also held on the occasion, wherein experts spoke about the challenges ahead in reducing the State’s TB burden.
Published - September 05, 2024 09:11 pm IST
