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Prez Murmu to launch initiative to let people adopt TB patients, sponsor treatment
Ni-kshay Mitra launch: India has set the end of 2025 as the target to eliminate TB from the country, five years ahead of the global goal of 2030.
NEW DELHI: In order to step-up Tuberculosis (TB) elimination measures, the government will launch a pan-India initiative on Friday under which individuals or institutions can adopt TB patients, and take care of their nutritional, diagnostic or vocational requirements for at least a year.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya plans to adopt 15 patients in his home state Gujarat.
The support will be in addition to free diagnostics, drugs, and ₹500 that government provides TB patients as part of the TB control porgramme.
India has set the end of 2025 as the target to eliminate TB from the country, five years ahead of the global goal of 2030.
India has the world’s highest TB burden, with an estimated 2.6 lakh people contracting the disease, and 400,000 dying of the disease, annually.
President Droupadi Murmu will launch the special campaign.
The cost of meeting the requirements is likely to be around ₹1,000 a month, and the government will encourage people or institutions to adopt either an individual patient, a block, a district, or even a state for at least a year.
There are currently 900,000 TB patients on treatment who will require the support, out of 1.3 million new cases notified so far. The remaining declined support as they are capable of meeting their nutritional needs.
The period of adoption can extend up to three years.
“The idea behind launching the initiative is community engagement in dealing with TB burden as it always helps when people contribute towards achieving a national goal. We want to bring a humane touch to the whole initiative,” said a senior government functionary aware of the matter, on condition of anonymity.
The initiative will be called “Community Support to TB Patients-Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan”, and those adopting patients will be called Ni-kshay Mitra. Apart from individuals, Ni-kshay mitras could include cooperative societies, corporates, elected representatives, institutions, non-governmental organisations, and political parties.
As part of the initiative, the government is also launching a web portal on Friday that will allow people to register as Ni-kshay mitra and choose the area or individual they want to adopt.
The portal will allow one to choose the type of support, duration of support and geographic area. Once a person or institution is registered, a unique ID will be generated and used for future reporting.
An email with the contact details of the district TB officer will be sent to the donor.
“Local TB control programme officers will be in touch with those who registered for the initiative to guide and support them. There has been a meal plan designed under the guidance of the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, which will be adapted based on local meal preferences. Malnutrition is a huge issue when treating TB patients,” said Dr Raghuram S Rao, additional DDG, TB division, Directorate General of Health Services.
