DC Rajouri chairs District TB Forum meeting

 Asks for supporting all patients through Nakshay Mitra

RAJOURI, February 20: Deputy Commissioner Rajouri, Vikas Kundal, on Monday asked for adopting an effective Active Case Finding (ACF) approach to identify hotspots of Tuberculosis in the district and to ensure that all TB patients are supported through Nakshay mitras.

He was speaking at a meeting of District TB Forum attended by Chief Planning Officer, Mohammad Khursheed; Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Rajinder Langer; Medical Superintendent GMC Associated Hospital Dr. Mehmood Bajar; District TB officer, Dr. Khalid Mansoor; journalist member of forum Sumit Bhargav, besides Dr. Shuja, Dr. Kanisthi and Dr. Zaeem Khan, were also present.

 At the outset, the District TB officer gave a detailed presentation on the existing number of TB patients and measures   taken to bring down the incidence of TB in the district.

The meeting was informed that there are 497 TB patients in the district, which indicates a decline in the incidences of TB.

Regarding Nakshay mitras, he informed that 120 people are providing help to TB patients as Nakshay mitras, while hundreds of others have already enrolled for extending nutritional support.

The DC said that the first TB ward of GMC Associated Hospital Rajouri will be made functional on March 1, 2023, for which necessary directions have been issued to the concerned departments.

The TB ward of GMC Associated Hospital Rajouri, will have separate IPD arrangements for male and female patients while all other additional arrangements will also be made in this ward which shall be run under the supervision of HoD Department of Chest and TB, Dr. Zaeem Khan.

He further asked the health authorities to identify all the hotspots in the district and to follow Active Case Finding (ACF) approach in these areas.

The Deputy Commissioner further asked the health department to issue an advisory asking private medical practitioners to send suspected TB cases for examination in the District TB Cell so that their testing is done to check TB.

Regarding Nakshay mitras, the Deputy Commissioner asked the District TB officer to ensure that all the identified and listed TB patients get nutritional support from Nakshay Mitras.

Directions were also issued for all BMOs in the district to ensure that TB control guidelines are followed in letter and spirit for success in TB elimination.