Ranipet Collector S. Valarmathi inaugurated a Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DRTB) treatment centre at the newly-opened Christian Medical College (CMC) campus in Ranipet on the Chennai - Bengaluru Highway (NH 48) on Wednesday.
According to a press release, the new centre at CMC’s Ranipet campus has been equipped with drugs to treat patients who have TB. This is the first and only service for patients in Ranipet district, with drug-resistant TB. These patients require intensive monitoring and close follow-up care, which the centre will provide.
A major roadblock to TB control is multidrug resistant TB. The TB germs in these patients are resistant to the regular TB medicines. This has to be detected early and treated with special anti-TB drugs. At present, CMC has drugs that are very effective in treating drug resistant TB.
India has had a TB Control Programme since 1962. Since then, it has re- organised itself two times. The first was the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) in 1997, when the country adopted the internationally-recommended Directly Observed Treatment Short- course (DOTS) strategy, which involves observed administration of effective anti-TB drugs for six months, as the most systematic and cost-effective approach to effect TB control. This treatment will be provided at the new centre at CMC, Ranipet.
The second initiative was the National Tuberculosis Elimination program in 2020, when the Prime Minister declared the goal to eliminate TB by 2025, ahead of the global deadline of 2030, the release said.
