Two persons die of tuberculosis (TB) in India every three minutes, and India is one of the 22 high TB burden countries in the world, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) TB Report-2009, published recently.
This was informed by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday in reply to a question from Jharkhand’s RS member Parimal Nathwani.
Trivedi also informed that there were 16 other countries in the world with a higher rate of TB incidences than India.
Responding to a query from Nathwani, the minister said, NGOs, private TB service providers, corporate hospitals, medical colleges etc were being actively involved in the fight against TB.
Schemes under the Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP) were available since 2000 for involvement of the NGOs and private providers, Trivedi said and added these schemes had been further revised in 2008 to make them more flexible and in line with the newer initiatives.
The minister also informed the upper house that over 2500 NGOs, 19000 private providers, 150 corporate hospitals and 267 medical colleges in the country were supporting the RNTCP.
{{/usCountry}}The minister also informed the upper house that over 2500 NGOs, 19000 private providers, 150 corporate hospitals and 267 medical colleges in the country were supporting the RNTCP.
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