World Vision India (WVI), a non-government organisation focussed on supporting children in need, has been extending nutrition support to 1,714 Tuberculosis patients in Krishna and Guntur districts under the 'Focused Approach Towards Childhood Tuberculosis (FACT)' project.
In a release, WVI director of health Reeti Tiwari Dass said that under the FACT project, nutrition support was being given for six months to drug-sensitive patients and 24 months to drug-resistant patients for the past two years. She said each nutrition kit consisted of groceries, including toor dal, green gram, chana dal, ragi flour, groundnut, jaggery, dates and others.
"Though the government provides ₹500 towards nutrition support through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, many poor TB patients and their families have a greater need. In collaboration with the State and district National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme units, we are filling the gap and extending support in the districts of Guntur and Krishna," Dr. Reeti said.
She said more than four lakh people had been screened through WVI's Active Case Finding campaigns in the last two years.