Nutrition cell must for TB patients, says Saryu Rai

RANCHI: Saryu Rai, minister of state for food, civil supplies and parliamentary affairs, on Friday called for the constitution of a dedicated nutrition cell for catering to tuberculosis patients of Jharkhand. As Jharkhand’s administrative machinery observed World TB Day on Friday at a city hotel, Rai said the nutrition cell should be formed under the monitoring of the state health, health education and family welfare department. “Many TB patients are poor and cannot afford a nutritious diet. My department can only supply wheat, rice and sugar, and that only to the ration card holders,” Rai said. “There must be a cell that looks after their nutrition,” Rai said.Rai’s comment came after the annual TB status report of Jharkhand, compiled and unveiled by the state wing of the revised national tuberculosis program (RNTCP), showed a rise in the number of fresh TB cases in 2016. The RNTCP report said more than 36,000 new TB cases were recorded at government and private hospitals last year — roughly 3,000 more than 2015. The report, which pointed out the lack of nutritious diet among TB patients, also stated that the state’s TB burden at this time is a little over 4.6 lakh with rising numbers of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases. While 16,000 MDR-TB-suspected patients have been screened, more than 1000 MDR-TB cases have been recorded. Dr. Pravin Chandra, director-in-chief of the state health services, on Friday stressed on the need to deploy more cartridge based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) machines in every hospitals (block, sub-divisional, district and medical colleges) for quick diagnosis of MDR-TB machines. “The machines have been provided with help from the Union health ministry. This will reduce the time taken to properly diagnose a MDR-TB patient and put him in the correct line of treatment,” Chandra said.