Nagaland Health Department reports 3,843 TB patients, says Anoop Khinchi

Dimapur: Nagaland health and family welfare department’s commission and secretary Anoop Khinchi on Monday said the state currently has about 3,843 TB patients.

Speaking at the meeting of the administrative heads of departments and heads of departments on the 100-day TB campaign on elimination of TB under the theme ‘ TB Mukt Bharat’ at the secretariat conference hall in Kohima, Khinchi said TB remained India’s biggest public health challenge and causes the largest number of deaths among all infectious diseases.

He said the country’s estimated new TB cases annually is 28 lakhs.

He said the stratified 100-day campaign was launched on December 7, 2024, to reduce TB deaths and prevent new cases.

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He also said the campaign entails increased case detection, coverage of nutrition interventions and increased awareness in the community towards early detection and complete treatment of TB.

Chief secretary J Alam, in his opening remarks, said out of the 347 districts selected across the country for the 100-day TB elimination campaign, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, three districts of Kohima, Mon and Wokha in Nagaland, considered to be high incidence districts, are included for the campaign.

Alam called on all the line departments for intensive outreach and awareness actions required for the campaign to be successful.

He also asked all the DCs to hold proper review meetings and involve all the civil societies, church leaders and other influential people to devise strategies for the campaign's success and achieve the targeted outcome.

Alam administered TB Mukt Bharat pledge while the state TB officer, national TB eElimination programme, Dr Vezokholu Theyo gave a PowerPoint presentation on the 100-day campaign.