Panaji: Goa currently has 776 tuberculosis (TB) patients on treatment at government hospitals, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane informed in a written reply to the Goa Legislative Assembly.
The constituency of Cortalim has the highest number of TB patients on treatment, with 56, followed by Vasco, which has 55 patients.
To control and eliminate TB in the state, upfront Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests (NAAT) are being offered to all the presumptive TB patients for diagnosis of tuberculosis, and free drugs and diagnostics are provided to all the TB patients.
Rane said that collaborative activities with renowned actress Varsha Usgaonkar and Konkani tiatrist John D’Silva were conducted to ensure community awareness on TB, and activities were also held to improve the health-seeking behaviour by encouraging the symptomatic to get tested for TB.
“With these activities, the presumptive TB examination has increased from 1,920 tests per lakh population in the year 2023 to 2,161 tests per lakh population in 2024,” Rane said, adding that all TB patients are monitored for treatment adherence and follow-up is being done.
“Each TB patient is assigned to a community health officer (CHO)/medical officer for monitoring. Household contacts of TB patients are screened for TB with symptom screening and chest X-ray by the peripheral health institutes. TB preventive treatment is being offered to household contacts of pulmonary drug-sensitive TB patients after the CyTB skin test,” Rane said.
Under Nikshay Poshan Yojana, each TB patient is given Rs. 1,000 per month while on TB treatment directly into the bank account through Direct Benefit Transfer for nutritional support. Additionally, a food basket is
being provided to each consented TB patient by Nikshay Mitra under Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan.
“Differentiated TB care is offered to all the TB patients to assess the patient›s risk profile. Those identified with high risk are referred to higher facilities for further management,” he said.
