Latest News | IOC Joins Fight to Eliminate Tuberculosis in Punjab, UP

New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the firm that control's nearly half of the nation's fuel distribution channels, has joined the flight to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, putting its vast network in the states in helping identify patients and providing them treatment.

"IndianOil has committed to supporting the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) in India by providing an enabling environment through integrated and prioritised intervention with City Coordination Committees, District Health Societies, Technical support groups, etc, in each of the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh and 23 districts in Punjab," a company statement said.

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The programme's key objective will be to screen and test the entire population of UP and Punjab every year for the next three years.

Once patients are notified, their treatment will continue as per the protocol of the NTEP.

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TB continues to be one of India's severest health challenges. The country has a large number of 'missing' cases every year that are not detected or reported.

In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a clarion call to end TB in India by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of 2030.

While the union government provisions a good amount of budget annually for the TB programme, considering its enormity efforts need to be supplemented by augmenting the existing resources, service delivery mechanism and infrastructure for identification of numerous missing TB patients every year.

"TB elimination is a national duty, and therefore additional efforts are needed to identify the TB patients for treatment," IOC said. "Almost the whole population need to be reached every year for symptom screening and testing of over one crore symptomatic patients is needed in the next 3.5 years, so that, complete coverage for early diagnosis can be made to cut the chain of transmission."

Joining the 'TB Mukt Bharat' campaign, IOC said its sizeable presence in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab will be used to connect the dots of demand aggregation, supply-side strengthening, and enabling the environment.

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country, with almost a fifth of Indian residing in the state. In 2020, Uttar Pradesh, with a population of over 23.4 crore, had the highest share of tuberculosis notifications in India (over 20 per cent).

At the same time, it contributes to almost one-fourth of estimated missing cases in the country.

Punjab caters to a large number of migrant labourers from many states and ensuring a cascade of care to TB patients among migrants is a challenge.

"In collaboration with the state government, demand aggregation (identification of patients) will be supported by running information, education and communication (IEC) programmes in the community and strengthening ASHA, ANM and AWW workers in the state by incentivising them for accurate screening of population.

"Supply-side strengthening (strengthening infrastructure) will be done through creating more facilities for testing by providing machines at the block level and medicine delivery mechanism through mobile vans, etc," the statement said.

Stating that the TB programme is being undertaken as part of CSR activity, IOC said it has always been committed to serving the people of India.

"From providing liquid medical oxygen in the second surge of the pandemic, ensuring vaccination of lakhs of its channel partners and ensuring uninterrupted supply lines of vital petroleum products during the pandemic, 'Pehle India Phir Oil' has always been IndianOil's guiding mantra," the statement added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)