BENGALURU: In the recently released India TB report 2018, Karnataka’s TB notification rate from the private sector was found to be dismally low at 18 per lakh population compared to the public sector at 105 per lakh population. The Centre’s standard for rate of notification is 217 per lakh population.
The report published on March 24 said as opposed to 69,199 TB patients notified from the public sector in 2017, only 11,988 patients were notified from the private sector. This despite the fact that notification has been incentivised with extension of free quality drugs and diagnostics to the patients accessing care from the private sector.
Incentives of Rs 1,000 are being provided for notification of TB patients — Rs 500 for notification and Rs 500 for reporting treatment outcome. The incentives are being provided upon notification in the TB reporting software Nikshay through a smooth and transparent manner.
On March 16, the Union government for the first time made failure to notify TB patients a punishable offence with imprisonment from six months to two years. Labs, clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacists, chemists and druggists dispensing anti-tubercular medicines were mandated to inform the District TB Officer about the patient along with details of medicines and maintain a copy of the prescription.
“The case notification rates have started decreasing in many parts of the country despite increasing efforts of symptomatic examination the public sector,” the report observed.The programme is making special efforts to reach out to the uncovered TB population through active case finding (ACF) campaign, focusing on clinically, socially and occupationally vulnerable populations and shifting from passive to active case finding along with passive case finding in selected populations.
For achieving the ambitious targets, the programme has modified its diagnostic approach to drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB cases.Dr Ramachandra Bairy, joint director, Tuberculosis, state department of health and family welfare, told The New Indian Express, “60 per cent of patients go to public sector and our notification rates are good there. Around 40 per cent patients go to the private sector and we are trying everything from incentives to punitive action. The chemists are required to maintain a Schedule H1 drug register (drugs that cannot be sold over the counter and require a prescription; TB drugs come under Schedule H1). If they find from the copy of the prescription that the medical practitioner has not notified a TB patient he can face imprisonment.”