Gurugram: Team of TB champions formed to spread awareness on treatment, stigma

The team will make video and audio messages for different government-run social media platforms to encourage all the patients to get themselves treated

The Gurugram administration has formed a team of 12 tuberculosis (TB) patients who have successfully recovered from the disease, to help the district health department spread awareness about its treatment and break the stigma around the disease, said the officials on Friday.

Secundrabad,Ap,India -june 5,2012:volunteer signing the signature campaign poster,during the TB awareness program, for eradication of TB in India,in the event organised by a NGO. (Getty Images)

This team will make “video and audio messages for different government-run social media platforms to encourage all the patients to get themselves treated completely”, they added.

Dr Keshav Sharma, deputy civil surgeon for tuberculosis treatment, Gurugram, said, “One of the challenges we face the most is that many patients do not complete the six-month course of treatment, which puts both the patient and others around them at risk. About 12 patients — all above the age of 18 years — have successfully recovered from tuberculosis in the district, and have been declared themselves as ‘TB Champions’. We will take their help in community outreach, where they will share their personal experience from diagnosis to recovery, and help all in breaking the stigma around the disease so that the people do not discriminate against the TB patients and rather encourage them in getting themselves treated in time.”

The district administration has identified 357 TB patients till March, and over 500 patients for same in the district this year.

The district administration has identified 357 TB patients till March, and over 500 TB patients the district this year. Officials said that every year, around 7,000 TB cases are reported in Gurugram, of which nearly 168 to 180 are regular patients with multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB. The trend has remained almost the same since 2013. Around 10% of the total TB cases reported in the district are paediatric cases, said the officials.

On Thursday, the district TB forum and interdepartmental committee also held a meeting to discuss “issues on how the TB eradication programme could be made more effective in the district”.

“We have asked all the private hospitals and diagnostic labs to immediately notify the health department if they come across a patient who has symptoms of TB, or conduct tests on the person for the same. That way, the health department officials can monitor the patients closely, and help them with the treatment. We have also asked the drug control team to ensure that the chemists do not sell medicines to the TB patients without a prescription,” said Sharma.

The district health department is also planning to get bureaucrats and politicians in Gurugram to adopt one TB case each, and monitor the treatment and recovery processes. The state government gives ₹500 to a TB patient every month for the treatment, and the patient will also get extra financial aid under the adoption model to continue the treatment.

An adoption model is an initiative where a person adopts a patient and monitors their treatment process while helping them financially.