BENGALURU: Tuberculosis patients who approach the private sector for treatment are twice in number than those who visit government facilities. While hospitals have to notify the government about each TB patient, they often do not do so, despite India making it a notifiable disease five years ago in 2012, officials say.
This has made it very hard for the government to reach out to TB patients who approach private hospitals for treatment. Now, in a bid to ensure that medication reaches all, the Additional Deputy Director General of the Central TB division has written to the state TB officer stating that the William J Clinton Foundation Centre for Health Research and Innovation New Diagnostics will launch a project called JEET (Joint Effort for Elimination of TB) through a global fund grant.
It will map private providers and provide service delivery linkages in the private sector like sample collection, transportation and logistical support.
The project will also facilitate free diagnosis of patients and fixed dose combination drugs. This will ensure notification of both the disease and the treatment outcome of patients. Under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, there are certain incentives that the patient is entitled to, and this project will facilitate that. It will also link patients to social welfare schemes they may be unaware of.