AIZAWL:
Mizoram Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati and state Health minister Dr R Lalthangliana, on September 19, announced that they will adopt 20 and 10 tuberculosis (TB) patients respectively during the statewide launch of ‘Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan’ at the Raj Bhavan.
Under this community support programme, TB patients can be adopted and cared for by an individual, elected representatives or institutions through Ni-kshay 2.0 portal. So far, the portal has seen only 22 registrations of ‘Ni-kshay Mitras’ (TB patient care-takers) from Mizoram, the Governor said.
The Governor, while announcing that he would adopt 20 TB patients under the programme, said, “To set an example as the head of the state.”
To accelerate the progress in this initiative, he appealed to all sections of the society to donate food baskets as much-needed nutritional support to TB patients through the Nikshay Mitra programme.
In his inaugural address, the Governor urged all the stakeholders to create mass awareness so that people must know that the prevention of TB disease is possible, its treatment is effective and accessible, and that we must take great care that those suffering from the disease are not discriminated against. He stressed the importance of adopting a TB patients through the online platform called Nikshay.
He urged all partners including co-operative societies, corporate, elected representatives, NGOs, public and private institutions, political parties and individuals to come forward and participate in this noble service.
Dr R Lalthangliana reiterated India’s commitment to end TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global targets of 2030. He also explained the target set for Mizoram is based on the baseline year of 2015. He said Mizoram reported 2,145 TB cases and 38 deaths due to TB in Mizoram during 2015.
“An 80 per cent reduction from this means four deaths due to TB and 90 per cent reduction means that not more than 430 TB cases by 2025 for Mizoram to be declared as a TB-free state,” he said.
He further elaborated the strategy for achieving this target and the progress of infrastructural strengthening to support this effort to make Mizoram a TB Free state by 2022.
In Mizoram, there are 1,358 TB patients currently on treatment, out of which 1039 have given their consent to receive the support under this scheme.