Damage control: BMC launches pilot project to tackle TB in city

Getting into damage-control mode, the Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday announ-ced a pilot TB project to deal with the cases of drug resistance in tuberculosis in the city.

Getting into damage-control mode, the Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday announ-ced a pilot TB project to deal with the cases of drug resistance in tuberculosis in the city.

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“Each of the 24 civic wards will be treated as a district under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Progra-mme (RNTCP),” said Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner, BMC.

Earlier, the city had only six districts. Creating more districts will increase the manpower to monitor the programme, said Dr Padmaja Keskar, deputy health officer (TB), BMC.

The Mumbai Urban TB Development Authority will monitor the project with a TB officer in each ward and an officer at the helm. The Sewree TB Hospital will also increase its current 44 beds for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients to 90.

Normally, each MDR-TB patient is admitted for a week to check if there are any side effects to the treatment. “We will have a set-up whereby three rounds of 90 patients can be turned out every month,” said Mhaiskar.