Detection of TB and treatment still a challenge, says Health Secretary

‘Private sector notification is very few in many parts of State’

Noting that tuberculosis remained a challenge but that it had taken the backseat, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan on Friday said that lessons learned in COVID-19 to test, track, treat and follow appropriate behaviour applied to all diseases.

Stressing on the need to concentrate on TB during an event organised by REACH, an NGO, in line with World TB Day 2022, he said: “Still, private sector notification of cases is very poor in many parts of the State, while government sector notification was equally challenging.”

Tamil Nadu had fixed a target to reduce the incidence of TB to 77 per lakh population and deaths due to TB to six per lakh population by 2023.

“This is a tough challenge not because we do not have the facilities but because we are not diagnosing (cases),” he said.

Tough challenge

The target of achieving zero TB cases, zero deaths and reducing stigma by 2025 was a tough challenge, he told reporters.

Asha Frederick, additional director of Medical and Rural Health Services and State TB Officer, said they had asked private medical colleges to have centres for patients with drug resistant TB.