Assam Governor Adopts 10 TB Patients Under Nikshay Mitra Initiative

Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria adopted 10 Tuberculosis Patients of the State on May 20 at Raj Bhawan as a part of the Nikshay Mitra Campaign, a Community Support initiative for TB Patients under Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan.

On behalf of the TB patients Dr. M S Lakshmi Priya, Mission Director, NHM Assam, Jayanta Dutta, Zonal Administrative Officer, NHM Assam, Dr. Avijit Basu Joint Director (TB), Dr. Palash Talukdar WHO Consultant received the food baskets as Nutritional Support from the Governor of Assam.

S S Meenakshi Sundaram, Commissioner & Secretary, to the Governor of Assam, Swapna Dutta Deka, Secretary to the Governor of Assam were present along with key officials of the Raj Bhawan and National Health Mission, Assam.

Under the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (Ni-kshay Mitra Initiative) implemented by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, 9.55 lakh out of the 9.69 lakh consented TB patients across the country have been adopted by Ni-kshay Mitra (as on 09.03.2023).

With the goal of achieving Sustainable Development Goals related to TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global targets, the National TB Elimination programme implements key activities as under:

1.       State and District Specific Strategic plan for targeted interventions in high-burden areas.

2.       Provision of free drugs and diagnostics to TB patients including for drug-resistant TB.

3.       Active TB case-finding campaign in key vulnerable and co-morbid populations.

4.       Integration with Ayushman Bharat - Health & Wellness Centres to decentralize screening and treatment services closer to the community.

5.       Private sector engagement including incentives for notification and management of TB cases.

6.       Scale-up of molecular diagnostic laboratories to sub-district levels.

7.       Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana for nutritional support to TB patients.

8.       Intensified IEC campaigns to reduce stigma, raise community awareness and improve health-seeking behaviour.

9.       Multi-sectoral response with involvement of line ministries.

10.   Scale up TB preventive therapy to contacts of pulmonary TB.

11.   Tracking of notified TB cases through a case-based web-based portal namely Ni-kshay.

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