Punjab will be TB free by 2025: Chetan Singh Jauramajra

Chandigarh, November 9:
Elaborating on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government's achievement and future plan to eradicate TB by 2025, Health and Family Welfare Minister Chetan Singh Jauramajra on Wednesday said that eight districts of Punjab has already received bronze category certification and the department has set an aim to get five more districts in silver category and three more in bronze category in the coming year.
Revealing this, the Health Minister said that for the year 2022-23 department has set a target to identify and treat 70,000 patients. He said that Punjab Health and Family Welfare department has organised a two day workshop at the MGSIPA Chandigarh with an aim to eradicate TB by bringing down the new incidence of TB cases by more than 80%. He said that this workshop has been organized as a part of the nationwide efforts by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to find, test and treat more and more TB cases by actively collaborating with partners, private sector, patients and communities to measure progress and identify gaps for course correction.
Jauramajra further said that the department has recently conducted a state level meeting of about 40 business houses of the state and appealed to them to enroll themselves as Ni-kshay Mitras. He instructed the DTOs to get in touch with them and take this to the next level. He reiterated that the target of TB elimination may seem huge and difficult but with collective efforts it would be achieved.
Giving details regarding workshop, Mission Director National Health Mission Abhinav Trikha said that this workshop was attended by state and district health officials, faculty members cum nodal officers from IAPSM. He said that during this workshop the officials were instructed to work in tandem to achieve the desired target of TB elimination within the set timeframe and appreciation certificates have been awarded to the health officials and workers of the eight districts namely Fatehgarh Sahib, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Ferozepur,Moga, Roopnagar and Tarn Taran for their efforts which resulted in reduction in incidence of new TB cases.  He said that the department has received feedback from the participants for successful implementation of the NTEP besides assuring the District TB Officers to resolve their issues.
Divulging details regarding the NTEP, Director Health and Family Welfare Dr. Ranjit Singh Ghotra stated that this programme provides free diagnostic services and free treatment to all notified TB patients in public system as well as private sector. He said that the Programme also provides monthly 500 rupees to all patients for nutritional support under Nikshay Poshan Yojana through DBT.