Working towards the government of India’s target to eliminate Tuberculosis (TB) in India by 2025, Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP) conducted its 4th quarter review meeting on March 14 at the Conference Hall, Directorate of Health & Family Welfare Kohima and discussed the possibilities of achieving this target.
A press release by state program officer (RNTCP) stated that in the meeting, WHO consultant for RNTCP, Dr. Palash Talukdar, while giving a state performance presentation for 2018, exhorted the district staff to update all NIKSHAY entries with all indicators such as TB co-morbidities, contact tracing, treatment outcome, U-DST etc. so that a clearer picture was portrayed of the state’s achievement.
The release said that during the course of the meeting, all speakers agreed that to reach the 2025 target, many new initiatives with set time lines have to be initiated, such as Nikshay Poshan Yojana through district benefit transfer for all TB patients, universal drug susceptibility tests, active case finding, and TB collaborative activities with other sectors.
In order to successfully implement all these activities, the speakers were of the view that comprehensive planning and sincere efforts of all categories of staff at various levels was of prime importance.
State Program Officer Revised National TB Control Program, Dr. Tiasunup Pongener, led a discussion and adopted a resolution on some key issues.
The meeting resolved that all pending Bank account seeding of all beneficiaries will completed by April 30, 2019 and all other backlog entries about NIKSHAY will be done by March 30, 2019.
Pongener also urged the participants to be regular in their respective places of posting and discharge their duties to the best of their abilities.
The meeting was attended by all district TB officers, senior treatment supervisors (STSs) and Nikshay Operators along with State TB Cell staff.