{"id":194393,"date":"2022-07-06T17:13:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T11:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=194393"},"modified":"2022-07-06T17:14:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T11:44:28","slug":"the-way-to-control-tuberculosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-way-to-control-tuberculosis\/","title":{"rendered":"The way to control tuberculosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cThe way to control tuberculosis\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 6th<\/sup> July 2022.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 2 Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP)<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: In recent years, WHO revised its target of TB elimination to 2035. Further, the Prime Minister also announced that India would eliminate TB by 2025.<\/p>\n

Threat posed by TB
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

As per WHO, Tuberculosis is the worst among endemic diseases<\/strong>. It kills 1.5 million people<\/strong> every year. It affects adults in their most productive years<\/strong>. As a result, it impoverishes<\/strong> the family and the nation.<\/p>\n

India is the TB capital of the world<\/strong>. In a gross estimate, it kills some 1,400 persons every day in India.<\/p>\n

History of India\u2019s TB control measures<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In the 1950s and \u201960s, India was the global leader in research<\/strong> in epidemiology<\/strong>, transmission<\/strong> and domiciliary<\/strong> treatment of TB.<\/p>\n

In 1962, the government adopted the National TB Control Programme<\/strong>. It was a district-based initiati<\/strong>ve which strived to control TB with public-private participation.<\/p>\n

Later on, the Indian government adopted the WHO\u2019s Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP)<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the flaws in the RNTCP programme which is being implemented in India?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The programme has been proved unsuccessful and the programme failed to control TB.<\/p>\n

It has been developed with the help of a theoretical construct<\/strong> of TB control<\/strong>. It does not factor in the differences between the TB epidemiology of poor<\/strong> and rich countries. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In India, there is no prescribed method of monitoring the trajectory of TB control.<\/p>\n

Till now, the Indian policy makers have assumed that treating pulmonary TB patients<\/strong> alone would control TB. However, it was an epidemiologically fallacious<\/strong> decision in India.<\/p>\n

The programme has failed to elicit people\u2019s partnership<\/strong> in TB control. Without people\u2019s informed participation<\/strong>, there will be stigma and delay in seeking help to control TB.<\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Before the National AIDS Control Organization<\/strong> was established, the Indian Council of Medical Research<\/strong> (ICMR) used to work on it. It set up an AIDS Control Task Force which <\/strong>had a unique method of monitoring the control trajectory, popularly called \u2018sentinel surveillance\u2019<\/strong>. India can adopt the same method today.<\/p>\n

India should design its own comprehensive strategy<\/strong> and point out the flaws in the WHO-designed RNTCP<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The government should focus on early diagnosis and treatment of the TB patients in order to curb TB through \u2018source reduction\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

India should adopt its earlier AIDS Control Programme,<\/strong> in which public education was given high priority. For example, red ribbon clubs were established in schools and colleges.<\/p>\n

In order to control TB, <\/strong>in addition to the specific interventions<\/strong>, the government should also work upon interventions such as the \u2018secular trend\u2019<\/strong>., for example, better housing, nutrition, education and income. Such \u2018secular trend\u2019 has reduced the burden of TB by 1% or 1.5% per year, globally.<\/p>\n

The policy makers should first focus on a high level of control<\/strong> over the TB Cases rather than elimination<\/strong> (refers to achieving zero frequency<\/strong> of new cases). This is because India has a huge backlog of latent TB and it is not possible to eliminate TB in near future.<\/p>\n

India should leverage Trained State<\/strong> and District TB officers<\/strong>, extensive network of TB clinics<\/strong> and an army of community<\/strong> and field workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on an article \u201cThe way to control tuberculosis\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 6th July 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation. Relevance: Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) News: In recent years, WHO… Continue reading The way to control tuberculosis<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-194393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":4,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1703165959},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}