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Dr. Kevichusa Medikru speaking at a review meeting of the Revised National Tubercolosis Control Programme.[/caption]
Dimapur, June 28 (EMN): The mission director of the National Health Mission, Dr. Kevichusa Medikru in a Revised National Tubercolosis Control Programme (RNTCP) meeting encouraged that the state should put more efforts and increases the detection and cure rate accordingly. The mission director was referring to the Government of India’s (GOI) target to eliminate TB by 2025.
During the RNTCP quarterly review meeting on June 27 at the Conference Hall of the directorate of Health and Family Welfare in Kohima, Medikru stated that the RNTCP has become a major programme at the national level, and that people should give their best to achieve the targeted goal. A press release from the organisers informed on June 28.
Speaking about the Nagaland performance, he said, it has been consistently performing well but last year it has gone down. If one district does not perform accordingly, it pulls down the performance of state as a whole.
An additional benefit in the form of nutritional support is recently being introduced to all the TB patients by GOI. Every presumptive TB cases should go for CB-NAAT testing, he added. This year, the GOI has identified 115 aspirational districts all over India where Kiphire district of Nagaland has also been identified as an aspirational district, the press release added. The mission director also requested all the district TB officers to jointly monitor kiphire district for the best output.
Giving an overview performance of all the districts, the mission director stated that Kohima district has been doing well and Nikshay (a web based solution for monitoring of TB patients) entry status is 100 percent. In Tuensang district, entry status in Nikshay was reported as lowest, while the default rate is high in the district. Therefore, he requested officers to give better and more efforts in future.
The state programme officer of RNTCP, Dr. Tiasunup Pongener, gave a welcome address. He informed of the need of TB patients to have bank account and Aadhaar number in order to access the necessary benefits and support being provided by GOI. Also, he said reminded that the review meeting will be held regularly. He asked all the districts reports be uploaded in Nikshay on regular basis. Further, he challenged them to increase TB notification rate to reduce default.