JAMMU, JANUARY 03: Secretary Health & Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar today chaired a meeting of State TB Forum for community engagement interventions and community led TB response here. Directors of Health Services gave a detailed presentation for their respective divisions highlighting the status of progress in Presumptive TB Testing, TB Notification rate, implementation of Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana (DBT) & Ni-kshay Mitra’s under Pradhan Mantri TB Mukht Bharat Abhiyan PMTBMBA. Action taken on the decisions of the previous meeting of State TB Forum was also discussed. Secretary reiterated that the UT Government is fully committed to achieve the ambitious target of elimination of TB by 2025, ahead of the national target of 2030 under Pradhan Mantri TB Mukht Bharat Abhiyan (PMTBMBA). In order to achieve the desired end there is need for focused approach by way of various interventions for community engagement and community led TB response. Directions were issued to both the Directorates to accelerate the TB elimination activities through focused approach especially in areas where TB burden is relatively higher. Further, they were asked to ensure that periodical meetings of District Tuberculosis Forum are held as per the guidelines. Bhupinder also desired that the trend analysis of TB related deaths should be done for better understanding of current situation. It was impressed upon all the State Tuberculosis Officers and District Tuberculosis Officers to ensure contact tracing of all the active Pulmonary TB patients and exploring the possibility of 3HP for the beneficiaries. While appreciating the efforts made by Tuberculosis team under the programme, Secretary Health stressed on the need for implementation of Joint Effort for Elimination of Tuberculosis project for extending quality TB care to the patients seeking care in private sector through developing effective partnership with private health service. The Directorate of Health Services was asked to ensure proper orientation and provisioning of testing for engagement of private clinics and practitioners. Besides, Medical Officers, field staff be adequately trained on new guidelines and procedures of the programme. Instructions were also issued to Medical Colleges to enhance TB related research activities besides ensuring operationalization of Integrated Research Lab by ending February 2023 The meeting was attended by Mission Director, NHM, J&K, Project Director, JK AIDS Control Society, Director Health Services Jammu/Kashmir, State Surveillance Officers, State Tuberculosis Officers, Representative from ASCOMS & HODs from GMCs Srinagar, Jammu, SKIMS Soura besides other officers of Health and Medical Education Department
