1537 TB cases in Dimapur last year; 16 deaths

Eastern Mirror Desk

Dimapur, March 24: Out of the more than 4000 cases of tuberculosis (TB) registered in Nagaland last year, Dimapur district alone accounted for 1537 patients.

On the occasion of World TB Day, the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) organised an event to mark the day at Chavara Home in Dimapur on Sunday. This year’s theme was “It’s time.”

The medical officer of RNTCP Dimapur, Dr. Sangpanger saidthat there were 1537 cases of TB that were registered with the programme’s online portal during January to December 2018 in the district.

Out of the 1537 cases— 695 patients have completed the medication course while 27 did not, and 16 were reported dead. Reportedly, the remaining patients simply did not turn up for evaluation. The assumption was that the patients either changed their locations or opted for a different programme.

From January to March this year, Sangpanger said that 321 TB patients have registered under Dimapur District TB Centre and Dhansaripar area. The Dimapur TB centre is located at Bank colony near the Treasury office.

He said that the centre only attends to outpatients. The centre provides sputum microscopy, cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (aka CBNAAT), integrated counselling and testing centre (to test HIV).

CBNAAT is a recently introduced polymerase chain reaction based method for detection of TB, which detects drug resistance.

Sangpanger said that services and medicines provided by the centre are free. He reminded that the programme has launched ‘active case finding’ where medical experts go door-to-door to collect samples and perform tests. He also said that RNTCP visits villages during Village Health and Nutrition Day, and various schools on similar occasions.

Sangpanger informed that the government of India is planning to eradicate TB all over the country by 2025. “For this purpose the Indian government has adopted and will be adopting many schemes,” he stated and continued that, ‘Nikshay Poshan Yojana,’ which was launched in April 2018, is the government’s plan to give INR 500 a month to TB patients to help them buy nutritious food and compensate them for travel expenses until they are cured of the disease.

TB patients will receive their financial grant directly in their active bank accounts. He added that the treatment supporters will get INR 1000 if he helps complete the medical course of a patient while the informers will get INR 500.

The chief medical officer (CMO) of Dimapur, Dr. Vikato Kinimi also attended the event at Chavara Home. During his speech, he explained the history behind World TB Day and about the discovery of streptomycin in 1943.

Stressing on the need to spread awareness about TB, Kinimi said that a patient could be cured only if he or she takes the prescribed medicine regularly.

He said that the symptoms include evening sickness, where there the patient will experience cough, fever, and loss of weight. According to him, any person experiencing those symptoms should immediately consult doctors.

Kinimi said that people suffering from HIV are sensitive to TB infection as their immunity power is low. He suggested that the TB patients may also get infected by HIV. He advised that the TB patients should also test for HIV.

“If you know how to take responsibility then everything will be alright,” he said and advised the people to visit the TB centre in Dimapur. He iterated that the medicine and the services are free.

“Your duty is to take medicine regularly. Do not be scared of TB. It will not kill you if you take medicines in the right way,” said Kinimi. He also requested every citizen to spread awareness about the disease; and about the free services provided by the centre.