Keeping TB away with a healthy diet

Keeping TB away with a healthy diet

Context

Can a healthy diet stave off tuberculosis? The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will monitor 2000 TB patients in Jharkhand and additionally ensure that they are well fed to determine the extent to which a good diet can influence tuberculosis treatment

Other Objective

Due to the infectious nature of tuberculosis, the study is also designed to test if the villages where the patients reside also show a decline in disease incidence

Historically

The department is drawing inspiration from an experiment in the early 20th century in England, where tuberculosis patients — in the absence of viable drugs — were given a nutritious diet. The overall health in the community vastly improved as the patients got better and spread less disease to family and neighbours

Link to RNTCP

The Health Ministry is mooting a proposal to provide cash assistance of ₹ 5,000 to those affected by TB

RNTCP (Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme)

Under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), Government is committed to end tuberculosis by 2025

The strategies adopted for this purpose include:

1. Strengthening and improving quality of basic TB services
2. Addressing TB HIV co-infection, other co-morbidities and MDR-TB
3. Targeted interventions in the vulnerable population
4. Integrating newer molecular diagnostics for TB in the health system for early diagnosis of TB
5. To leverage Information Communication Technology (ICT), Enhanced Private Sector Engagement, Nikshay and E Nikshay etc

Nikshay

The word is combination of two Hindi words NI and KSHAY meaning eradication of tuberculosis.

• To monitor Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP) effectively, a web enabled and case based monitoring application called NIKSHAY has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC)
• This is used by health functionaries at various levels across the country in association with Central TB Division (CTD), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
• NIKSHAY covers various aspects of controlling TB using technological innovations
• Apart from web based technology, SMS services have been used effectively for communication with patients and monitoring the programme on day to day basis
• Developed by: The system has been developed jointly by the Central TB Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and National Informatics Centre (NIC) and it was launched by the Government of India in June 2012
• Features & Benefits
  • The innovative IT application of NIKSHAY makes it possible for the grass-root level healthcare providers to track every TB patient.
  • The most significant feature of NIKSHAY is that it promotes the use of Information Technology at sub-district levels.
  • Video based training module 2 has been developed in Hindi and English with message from ex-Deputy Director General(TB) emphasising the importance of NIKSHAY in eradication of TB from India
  • NIKSHAY has been implemented at national, state, district and Tuberculosis Unit (TU) levels.

Objectives of Nikshay

• Establish real-time TB surveillance through Case-Based-Web-Based electronic recording and reporting
• Monitoring of TB Patients Treatment
• Develop and make available TB notification and registration system for both public and private sector
• Improve quality care by health service providers
• Support treatment of patients & Reporting of cases
• Increase transparency & accountability
• Provide follow up Alerts for adherence
• Providing required data for planning at National & State levels
• Provide TB related information on epidemiological / social impacts

WHO Data

• Acc. to WHO report death from tuberculosis in India saw a 12% decline from last year and the number of new cases, or incidence, saw a 1.7% decrease
• With 2.79 million new cases in 2016, India continued to be the largest contributor to the global burden with up to a quarter of the 10.1 million new cases of TB