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Imphal, Sept. 21: Manipur may soon be a model state for TB (tuberculosis) control programme in the country.
The central TB division has approval in-principle for making the state a model to effectively control the disease.
A source in the Manipur TB Society said central TB division deputy director-general Ashok Kumar Singh approved the status during his visit to Imphal recently.
He toured Imphal to take stock of the TB control programmes in the state and its present scenario.
Singh agreed to the proposal after seeing the control programmes and existing facilities in the Manipur were not adequate to tackle the situation.
Once the Manipur experiment is successful, the programme will cover other states as well.
Manipur is one of the worst TB affected states in the country. According to statistics available at the society, the disease claimed 1,464 lives while 3,754 patients are undergoing treatment for the past 11 years.
Health experts said the TB cases were alarmingly high in Manipur because of TB and HIV co-infection. The state is also one of the worst HIV-hit states of the country.
Manipur has 37 health blocks of which there are TB treatment centres only in 13.
Once the state is declared a TB model state, there will be treatment centres in all the health blocks, the source said.
The overall TB prevalence rate in India is 544 per one lakh population while in Manipur, it is 1,107 per one lakh people.
“We could not reduce the number of TB cases as an individual who was suspected of suffering from tuberculosis could not go to far-off centres for test or treatment,” the source said.
Experts said a TB patient spread virus to 10 persons in one year.
He said multiple drug resistant cases and extremely resistant cases were rising.
“We are apprehending that there may come a time of total drug resistant cases for some of the patients. Now TB is more dangerous than HIV in Manipur,” the official said.
Seeing the Manipur situation, the central official had agreed to declare it a model state.
After the central official gave the nod, the state society got the approval of the state government and submitted the proposal to the Union health and family welfare ministry and the central TB division, which is under the ministry.
“We have submitted all the documents and waiting for a final nod from the Centre. Once the declaration is made, Manipur will have all the adequate testing and treatment centres with all the necessary medicines and support from the Centre,” the source said.
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