Covid-19 tore through the globe and left a trail of destruction in its wake, with nearly 1,600 lives lost to the disease in Meghalaya since April 2020. The coronavirus is far less disruptive today and, thankfully, less deadly but while the world breathes a sigh of relief, the battle against a far older threat continues – that against tuberculosis (TB).
“The process of handling Covid-19 is just like handline TB,” National Health Mission (NHM) Meghalaya’s Mission Director, Ram Kumar, said today. “You screen the people having TB symptoms, they are isolated, high/low risk contacts are traced but, unfortunately, the attention given to Covid is far greater because TB looks like a poor man’s disease.”
Kumar was speaking at a programme on the current status of Meghalaya’s efforts towards TB elimination, especially in a post-pandemic environment and the endeavours to catalyze a mass movement against the disease.
No fewer than 200 lives are lost to TB in Meghalaya every year and the state is fortunate that the conditions that help the disease spread are not prevalent in the state.
“Meghalaya is fortunate in that its population is dispersed in nature, except in East Khasi Hills where a lot of close communities live together. TB is a disease that spreads in congested areas, such as slums,” Kumar said.
Even though Covid-19 grabbed centre stage in the last two years, it also did have one positive in that it provided valuable lessons that can be used in the fight against TB.
“Lessons from managing the Covid-19 pandemic have enabled us to intensify our efforts against TB. For instance, now each health centre has TB screening and testing capability. We are now able to leverage technology better, making TB notifications easier through mobile applications,” he said, adding that, with the mobile apps in place, private hospitals, dispensaries, clinics, etc can straight away notify district authorities about a TB-positive patient rather than filling forms and going through what was before a lengthy bureaucratic process.
Although there have been powerful antibiotics available to tackle TB for years now, the rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains of the disease is of deep concern. Resistance often develops if patients do not take their prescribed medicines in a timely and consistent manner.
Kumar urged pharmacists not to sell TB drugs without proper prescriptions from health experts because this will pose a difficulty in tracking patients and ensuring that they take the full course of antibiotics.
“If you have TB symptoms, like weight loss and lack of appetite, fever, cough, etc one should see the doctor immediately and know that it is curable and there is no stigma in having TB,” he added.
Meanwhile, the state’s TB Officer, Dr M Mawrie, informed that numerous awareness initiatives have been propagated in the state and intensive efforts have gone in to ensure the availability of modern testing equipment. Some 4,189 TB cases in Meghalaya were notified in 2021, with another 1,075 in the first three months of 2022.
The fight is led not only by mainstream medical teams but also through faith leaders, traditional healers, youth groups and traditional leaders, he added.
