Tuberculosis patients in Tamil Nadu get medications delivered to them

Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, in a press release, said medicines were delivered at the doorsteps of 52,489 patients

Tamil Nadu Minister for Health and Family Welfare C. Vijayabaskar in Chennai on March 03, 2019. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

Anti-tuberculosis drugs were delivered at the doorsteps of 52,489 patients undergoing treatment for TB during the lockdown in the State.

According to a press release issued on Thursday, Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said that steps were taken to ensure that TB patients continued to receive treatment, medications and were monitored during the lockdown. Patients who were under outpatient treatment for TB received the required medications at their homes.

Field staff delivered the drugs to the doorsteps of 52,489 patients -- 50,038 persons with TB and 2,451 persons diagnosed with Multi Drug Resistant-TB -- from March, to date. As per treatment protocols, arrangements were made to lift sputum samples at their homes and dispatch mobile X-ray units to patients who required an X-ray to be taken. The patients were continuously monitored by way of phone calls on the appropriate dosage of medications and side effects.

As TB patients need to consume nutritious food, the government had supplied the required ingredients to volunteers and NGOs to ensure that it reached the patients, the release said.