April 2019 digital edition

events
Inspirations 2019 calls for increased
awareness on TB
Elimination of TB requires a lot of effort and patience, concur experts
PHOTO: JOBIN V MATHEWS
DIVYA CHOYIKUTTY
Pulmonologists across Kerala
gathered together at the first
edition of ‘Inspirations2019’,
organized by Inspire, Department
of Pulmonary Medicine, Pushpagiri
Institute of Medical Science and
Research Centre and Kottayam
Respiratory Society on March 24, 2019
to commemorate ‘World Tuberculosis
Day’.
The conference highlighted
the rise of a global epidemic of
tuberculosis and the need for resilience,
stressing the strategy undertaken by
India to eliminate the disease, and
demonstrated various modalities and
diagnostic methods such as CB NAAT.
“The convention was organized as
a part of the 60th anniversary of our
respiratory department and is aimed
at creating awareness on tuberculosis
among current practitioners and
students,” said organising chairperson
Dr P Sukumaran, President of
Kottayam Respiratory Society and
Head of Department of Pulmonary
Medicine at Pushpagiri Medical College,
Tiruvalla.
TB is one of the top ten causes of
death in the world today, and India
has the world’s highest burden of TB,
accounting for 27 percent of all cases
and over 30 percent of all TB-related
deaths. Still, India has committed to
eliminating TB by 2025.
“At the national level, India is still
focusing on the diagnosis of all the
patients, including those in the private
sector. So the efforts that are currently
followed would actually result in
more patients being diagnosed by
2025, rather than a reduction,” said
former WHO consultant Dr. Sanjeev
Nair, who is also Associate Professor,
Department of Pulmonary Medicine,
Government Medical College,
Trivandrum.
“To have an elimination strategy
that is successful, we need to bring
[TB numbers] to 5% of what was
there in 2015. The WHO or UN target
for elimination is by 2035, but India is
trying to do something over and above
what the world aims at, which is pretty
ambitious. But it will take some more
time, as it requires lots of work and
patience,” he added.
India being a high disease burden
country has more cases of LTBI whose
treatment still remains a problem.
Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI)
is when a person is infected with
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but does
not have active tuberculosis.
The WHO has recommended on
treating active TB alone in high disease
burden countries like India. This calls for
unattended cases of latent TB infection
(LTBI) which would be left untreated
making India’s near goal of eliminating
TB farther.
“In low TB prevalence countries
like the US, LTBI needs to be treated
because there is a risk of it developing
into a progressive primary or secondary
TB infection. Whereas in India almost
40-60% of the population are already
infected, and latent infection is also
prevalent, thus we need to focus on
treating the active patients first instead
of focusing on the latent TB. While
some certain subset of patients can
be selected, as in HIV patients with
latent TB infection,” said Dr. C P Muraly,
Pulmonologist, Government Medical
College, Thrissur.
The event hosted a state level quiz
programme exclusively on tuberculosis
for postgraduates in pulmonary
medicine and general medicine.
April 2019 / FUTURE MEDICINE / 95