Gurugram: To prevent tuberculosis patients from being exposed to COVID, the district health department, on Monday, started a month-long door-to-door screening campaign to identify people with TB symptoms, similar to those of COVID.
A total of 504 individuals were screened on Monday. As per the health department survey, 150 areas in the city have been identified as ‘high-risk’ locations. About 60 houses will be screened everyday and 500 teams have been deployed for the same. Each team will have two members — one accredited social health activist (ASHA) and a multi purpose health worker (MPHW).
The department will start timely treatment for the suspected cases as these patients have low immunity. People with symptoms like cough for more than two weeks, haemoptysis, fever, weight loss and loss of appetite are suspected to have TB.
Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram said that Haryana aims to eliminate TB by 2025. “We will be screening people to start treatment of active TB cases. Our teams will ask them if they are facing any respiratory issues such as cough, cold and fever. Also they will be questioned if they know any TB patients in their neighbourhood. A sputum test will be conducted for such patients. The screening will continue till February 1,” the chief medical officer said.
According to experts, both COVID and TB have similar symptoms. TB patients are more prone to respiratory diseases and thus they are likely to get infected by coronavirus easily. At present, Gurugram has three CBNAAT machines for TB diagnosis. “We have three TrueNAAT machines which help in the diagnosis of TB.
We are increasing our TB units and staff. We have six tuberculosis units (TU) and 15 designated microscopy centres. Seven more TUs are expected to be set up soon and we will also start Interferon-Gamma Release Assays (IGRA) test for TB screening in Pataudi and Sohna hospitals as well,” he added.
For all the latest Health News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
