Tuberculosis-free India by 2025, says Ashwini Kumar Choubey

BHAGALPUR: Union minister of state for health and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey said at Bhagalpur on Thursday that the Centre has targeted to make India a tuberculosis (TB)-free country by 2025.

Choubey told this newspaper that efforts were being made to organise camps and ensure intensive treatment of TB to achieve the target within the deadline. He said a two-day health camp would be organised at Dariyapur village in

Bhagalpur district

on Friday and Saturday. Dariyapur happens to be Choubey’s ancestral village.

“Doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and other hospitals will examine patients of TB and other diseases at the two-day health camp. Besides, medicines will also be distributed among TB and other patients. Mobile health vans, equipped with pathological examination equipment, will do sputum and other tests on the spot,” the minister added.

“The objective of organizing health camps in rural and sub-urban areas is to provide quality health services to the poor. A three-day ‘Yoga Camp’ will also be organised from January 27 to 28 to make people aware about mental, physical and spiritual wellness,” he said.

Choubey, who had represented Bhagalpur assembly constituency between 1995 and 2014, was in the town to review implementation of health schemes for common people and oversee preparations for the health camp.

According to health experts, the announcement of elimination of TB by 2025 is significant in the wake of World Health Organization (WHO) reports that India is the highest TB-burden country with an estimated incidence of 2.2 million cases of TB in the country against the global figures of 9.6 million cases (year 2011 statistics) and approximately 2,20,000 deaths are reported due to TB in India annually.