The Haryana state government on November 20 announced the launch of a campaign to free Haryana of tuberculosis (TB). The government will colloborate with Medanta-The Medicity for the ‘TB free Haryana’ campaign, which will be supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan will be the brand ambassador of the campaign. The funding for the project will come from USAID.

In India, two people die every three minutes due to TB. That is the highest rate of TB deaths in the world. The manpower and field staff for the execution of the project will be provided by the state government while Medanta-The Medicity will give technical assistance so that more cases can be diagnosed.

Background:-

• About two lakh suspected cases of TB were reported in the state every year, of which about 40,000 patients were diagnosed with TB.
• As many as 119 TB units, 260 microscopic centres and 8,245 Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) centres are functioning under the TB programme in Haryana.
• As part of the campaign, Medanta hospital will conduct a survey in slums to identify TB patients.
• Health camps will be conducted in those areas and medicines will be distributed on the spot.
• Patients will be diagnosed with the help of portable digital chest X-ray machines installed in vans.
• These vans will travel to various districts in three phases in the next five years to make Haryana free of TB. Two such vans were flagged off on November 20.
• The districts to be covered in the first phase include Rewari, Gurgaon, Mewat, Palwal and Jhajjar. All 21 districts of Haryana will be covered in the three phases for which five such mobile vans will be rolled out.

Try it…

“Skoch Order-of-Merit” national award in implementation of six e-governance and IT initiatives in the state.Which state Bagged this Award?