JAIPUR: A host of programme, including a two-wheeler rally, were organised across the state for awareness on World Tuberculosis Day on Thursday.
State TB disease officer K N Gupta said various programme were organised during the day to create awareness about the disease.
He said the disease is completely curable provided the affected people take regular medicine. Since the treatment takes a long duration, patients sometimes leave treatment mid way resulting in development of a drug-resistant form of the disease.
In the state level function held here, medical and health minister A A Khan flagged off a two-wheeler rally in the morning to create awareness about the disease and its treatment.
Speaking at the function, he said the government is providing free treatment to TB patients under the Directly Observed Treatment Short (DOTS) course and asked people to take the benefits and help in the eradication of the disease.
At another public function organsied at Idgah ground at the Delhi Bypass Road, minister of state for health Rajkumar Sharma announced that his ministry would chalk out a programme called TB ke virudh yudh' (war against TB) in the state soon.
He called for public co-operation in eradicating the disease which continues to be a major health problem.
Sharma said there is no need for fear or concealing the disease as effective treatment is now available.
The minister also highlighted that the government is providing Rs 1.5 lakh worth of medicines every day for TB patients.
Principal secretary health B N Sharma said Rajasthan comes first in the country in the disease identification survey and treatment of TB patients.
World Tuberculosis Day is observed across the globe to raise awareness about the epidemic of TB and efforts to eliminate the disease.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one-third of the world's population is currently infected with TB and it causes the death of about 1.6 million people each year, mostly in the developing countries.
The Stop TB Partnership, a network of organisations and countries fighting TB, organises the day to highlight the scope of the disease and how to prevent and cure it.
The annual event on March 24 marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch, the German doctor, discovered the cause of tuberculosis as the TB bacillus. This was the first step towards diagnosing and curing TB.
WHO is working to cut TB prevalence rates and deaths by half by 2015.
Though the cause for TB was detected about 129 years back, the disease continues to be a major health problem. The main impediment in controlling the disease is the long duration of the treatment. In the last 50 to 60 years, no major break through could be made in the treatment of the disease.
http://cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=21587
No comments:
Post a Comment