The tuberculosis (TB) scare in the city has left civic health department authorities running helter-skelter, looking of ways to curb the menace.
The tuberculosis (TB) scare in the city has left civic health department authorities running helter-skelter, looking of ways to curb the menace. Their latest step is enforcing the rule that laboratories that have done investigation of TB cases in the city should keep them informed about all positives cases.
The authorities have written a letter to the said laboratories informing them about the same. If they fail to do so, the civic authority are likely to take punitive action against the concerned laboratory.
TB is a notifiable disease (ND) within city limits. It is mandatory for all nursing homes and private hospitals in the city to inform the BMC health department after they detect the positive cases of TB. Till the detection of extensively drug-resistant (XXDR-TB), nobody was serious about informing civic authorities about TB cases. Now the civic authority is taking serious cognisance of this disease.
"We will collect all positive cases from the laboratories investigating TB cases. We have written a letter to them appealing to give all the information about this disease. If they fail to do so, we can take the punitive action against them. Under the BMC Act, section 421, it is mandatory for private hospitals, nursing home, clinic and laboratories to inform the municipal corporation," said Dr Arun Bamne, Joint executive health officer, BMC.
Meanwhile, the state health department has planned to include TB in the notifiable disease list. Dr P Y Gaikwad, Joint director of state health department, said, "We have sent a letter to the Central health ministry stating TB should be included in notifiable disease across the state".
According to the experts, every institute has to report notifiable diseases cases to the government authorities as per law.
This collation of information allows the authorities to monitor the diseases and provides early warning of possible outbreaks. Some of the other notifiable diseases are TB, yellow fever, swine flu, cholera and plague.
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