Nagaland District TB officers, staff urged to work for achieving targeted goal
Kohima, June 28 (MExN): The Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) conducted its quarterly review meeting at the Conference Hall, Directorate of Health & Family welfare Kohima on June 27. All the District TB officers along with their respective staff attended the meeting.
It was stated in a press release that Dr. Kevichusa Medikru, Mission Director (NHM), State Programme Officer (NHM) and Dr. Palash Talukdar NE Consultant-RNTCP also attended the meeting.
Dr. Tiasunup Pongener, State Programme Officer (RNTCP) in the welcome address said that Quarterly Review meeting will be held regularly and that all staff should attend positively. “Every district shall help one another because each district is important and all the staff is equally important. He requested all the districts reports to be regularly uploaded in NIKSHAY portal,” he stated.
Dr. Kevichusa, Mission Director (NHM) said that since RNTCP has become a major programme at National level, everyone should give our best to achieve the targeted goal. “Nagaland has been consistently performing well but last year it has gone down. If one district does not perform accordingly, it pulls down the performance of state as a whole,” he added.
He also mentioned that the Government of India has set the target of elimination of TB by 2025 and so more effort is required to increase the detection and cure rate accordingly. An additional benefit in the form of nutritional support is recently being introduced to all the TB patients by Government of India. Every presumptive TB cases should go for CBNAAT testing.
While informing that out of 115 Aspirational districts all over India, Government of India has indentified Kiphire District from Nagaland, the MD requested all the District TB Officers to jointly monitor Kiphire district for the best output.
Giving an overview of the performance indicators of all the districts, Kohima district has been doing well and NIKSHAY entry status is also 100%, whereas Tuensang District became the lowest in NIKSHAY entry status and that the Default rate is also higher in Tuensang district and accordingly requested to give better and more efforts in future.
In Kohima district, two patients have already started on Bedaquilline. Bedaquiline is the active substance in TB drug which is also sometimes known by the trade name of Sirturo Bedaquiline which works by blocking an enzyme inside the Mycobacterium tuberculosis called ATP synthase. This enzyme is used by the bacteria to generate energy and without the ability to generate energy, the TB bacteria die and the patient’s condition will start to improve.
In the closing remark, the State Programme Officer requested the districts officers that all TB patients are required to have bank account and Aadhaar number so that they can access the additional benefit of nutritional support being provided by Government of India. Also all the districts should conduct Active Case Finding regularly. “Challenges were put forward for all districts so as to increase TB notification rate and towards 100% notified in NIKSHAY portal, to reduce default rate and that all TB patients should know their HIV status,” he added.
