The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) requested assistance from the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH & PH) to conduct a study to determine the cause of the spike in tuberculosis cases so that a suitable response could be planned after a significant number of TB patients were detected in south Kolkata pockets.

In the past year, 12 KMC wards in south Kolkata have recorded over 430 TB cases, according to a source in the KMC health department with most cases being found in the slum areas.

The civic authority has focused on several regions in the city, including Chetla, Alipore, Kidderpore, Metiabruz, Garden Reach, and the Kalighat-Hazra belt. Mayor Firhad Hakim claimed on Friday that measures were being made to tackle the menace of tuberculosis at all costs.

Mr. Hakim added that the main reason for the TB spread was malnutrition among residents of a slum in the Chetla Haat neighborhood. They were monitoring the slum and would take in serious patients at the KMC-run TB hospital situated in Boral on the southern outskirts.

An official from the KMC health department claimed that since tuberculosis is a silent killer, the threat has multiplied since the pandemic. The slum neighborhoods where a portion of the slum population is testing positive for TB have been under the most pressure. The health division of the civic organization is providing medical assistance to additional slums in the 12 TB-affected wards.

(Source:  https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/kmc-plans-study-after-south-kolkata-tuberculosis-spike/98222374)