According to India TB Report 2019, released by Union Health Ministry, Madurai district stands first with the notification of over 8,000 tuberculosis cases, while Central Chennai is second with over 7,000 cases.

The report has also shown that in few districts private doctors have notified a good number of cases. Among 8,094 cases that were notified from Madurai district, 4,768 casesand 3,326 cases were notified from public sector and private sector, respectively. Also, among 7,454 cases notified from Chennai Central, 4,521 cases were from public sector and 2,933 were from private sector. In the meantime, Kancheepuram stood third with 6,145 notified cases and among them, 5,651 cases were notified from public sector and only 494 cases were notified from private sector.

Officials said that awareness among private doctors, laboratory technicians and pharmacists are the reasons for better notification of TB cases. However, awareness among doctors in a few districts is very low which need to be addressed.

District TB Officer, Tiruvallur, Lakshmi Murali told Express that private doctors who are notifying cases has increased due to awareness. Along with doctors, pharmacists and laboratory technicians have also started doing the same and are creating awareness.

The State health department is giving Rs 500 as an incentive for patients notified from private hospitals. Not many patients from private hospitals are willing to take the incentive, in such cases they are recording it. Their aim is to end tuberculosis by 2025. Hence, awareness and reporting of cases had also increased.

According to the report, from 13 districts in the State, total 48,005 TB cases were reported. Among them, Karur district notified the least. It notified 1,073 cases, among them 831 cases were from the public sector and 242 were from the private sector.

S Kanagasabapathy, State president, Indian Medical Association, said that TB notification is mandatory and all practitioners should inform the concerned TB Control officers. They have conducted sensitization programme in 12 districts and are in the process of outspreading it to other districts. The government has also relaxed few norms. Now doctors can inform the TB officer concerned about the case and need not inform other health workers.He further said that patients in private hospital can also collect drugs supplied from government hospitals unlike earlierfrom their respective doctors only.

Source: The New Indian Express