XI Five Year Plan 2007-2012 - Public Health & Family Welfare ...

3. Prevention and Control of Communicable Disease
A. REVISED NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL PROGRAMME
(RNTCP) Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease. It spreads through the air by a
person suffering from TB. A single patient can infect 10 or more people in a year.
Modern anti -TB treatment can cure virtually all patients. It is, however, very important
that treatment be taken for the prescribed duration, which in every case is a minimum of
6 months. Because treatment is of such a long duration and patients feel better after just
1 -2 months, and because many TB patients face other problems such as poverty and
unemployment, treatment is often interrupted.
Till 1998 National TB Control programme was running in our state. Under this
programme district TB Centers were established in each district, where faci lities for
diagnosis and treatment were available. Achievements under this programme were
reviewed by GOI and it was found that cure rate under this programme was only 35 to
40% only because most of the patients were not taking full course of medicine. As a
result, a Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was designed
under which patients are given medicines under supervision by a strategy known as
DOTS (Directly observed treatment short course). The goal of RNTCP is to cure at least
85% of new smear -positive cases of tuberculosis and to detect at least 70% of such
patients, after the desired cure rate has been achieved.
In Madhya Pradesh Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was
started in 1998 in a phased manner. All districts of Madhya Pradesh have been covered
under RNTCP since December 2004. Under this programme the facility for diagnosis and
treatment have been decentralized and 142 TB units (1 at 5 lakh population in general
area and 1 at 2.5 lakh population in tribal areas), 714 Designated Microscopy Centers (1
at 1 lakh population in general area and 1 at 50 thousand population in tribal areas) have
been established. There are 10456 DOT Center in through which medicines are being
provided to the patients.