State chief secretary, Dr. J Alam, has called upon all responsible to work collectively towards the elimination of Tuberculosis (TB) in line with the Centre’s aim to eliminate TB in India by 2025, five years ahead of the global targets of 2030.
The chief secretary gave a clarion call during a meeting with Additional Heads of Departments (AHoDs) and Heads of Departments (HoDs) on 100-day TB campaign in collaboration with all line departments of Nagaland for eliminating TB on the theme ‘TB Mukt Bharat’ held at the civil secretariat conference hall here on Monday.
In his opening remarks, Alam said the 100-day TB elimination campaign, which was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been going on across the country.
He said that altogether 347 districts were selected across the country and out of which three districts of Nagaland—Kohima, Mon and Wokha—considered to be high incidence districts, were included for campaign.
He urged all the line departments for intensive outreach and awareness actions required for the TB elimination campaign to be successful. Alam also requested all the deputy commissioners (DCs) to have proper review meeting and involve all the civil society groups, Church leaders and other influential people in the committee to devise strategies for successful campaign and to achieve the targeted outcomes.
He emphasized that the success of the initiative required collective efforts of all stakeholders in the state. Alam also underlined the importance of early detection, free treatment availability, and effective outreach to ensure public awareness and participation.
Also, speaking at the meeting, commission & secretary H&FW, Anoop Khinchi, said that TB remained India’s biggest public health challenge and caused the largest number of deaths among all infectious diseases. He stated that Nagaland has about 3843 TB patients and across the country an estimated of 28 lakhs new cases occurs annually contributing to 26% of global burden to poor section of society.
Anoop Kinchi pointed out that TB causes largest no of deaths among all the infectious diseases and every year 3.5 lakh people die of TB in India—1300 deaths every day. He highlighted that undernutrition and TB shared bidirectional relationship.
He said that undernutrition increased the risk of development of TB and TB led to worsening of undernutrition due to tissue breakdown. Anoop said there was evidence that addressing the undernutrition among the TB patients improved response to the treatment, reduces mortality and improves long term treatment outcomes. He said that good and balanced nutrition strengthened the immune system which results in breakdown of the infection before it converts to TB.
He informed that the President of India launched the ‘Pradhan Mantri TB Mukta Bharat Abhiyaan’, also called the Nikshay Mitra Doner campaign on September 9, 2022.
He said the campaign has become the world’s largest crowd sourcing initiative for nutritional support and has received tremendous support from all sections of the society.
He informed that under Nikshay Poshan Yojana, the Centre was giving Rs. 1000 per month during the treatment period and through Nikshay Mitra will be additional support.
Anoop Kinchi also said that the stratified 100-day campaign was launched on Dec 7, 2024 with an approach to reduce TB deaths and prevention of new TB cases.
He also said that campaign entails to increased case detection and increased coverage of nutrition interventions and increased awareness in the community towards early detection and complete treatment of TB.
Anoop said that active participation from the community would not only help in spreading awareness but also accelerate fight against the stigma attached with it.
He also urged all the line departments to support the nationwide campaign and focus on strengthening collaborative activities in elimination of TB in Nagaland.
Giving PowerPoint presentation on 100-day campaign overview on TB campaign, state TB officer, National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), Dr Vezokholu Theyo stated that India has the highest estimated burden of tuberculosis infection (TBI) globally, with nearly 35-40 crore Indian population having TBI. She also highlighted that the risk for TB disease.
Theyo mentioned that the TB incidence rate (per lakh population) has decreased from 237 (in 2015) to 195 (in 2023). She also briefed about the Ni-kshay Sapthah in all different departments during Jan 27 to Feb 2, 2025. At the meeting, the chief secretary administered TB Mukt Bharat pledge.