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TB is the new scourge in town

It’s no more just a poor man’s disease. Stressful lifestyle, contaminated food are affecting even those from the upper strata.

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City-based, 29-year old advertising executive, Rano Dixshit, could not believe her ears when the doctor pronounced the verdict of her frequent illness as tuberculosis. Despite assurance that the illness was curable, Dixshit went into shock and needed extensive counselling thereafter.

It took four different medical opinions to convince finance consultant Seethu Jagan (40) of his status as a tuberculosis patient. A high flier in the lifestyle circuit, Jagan is still not convinced he has the illness.

Meet the new emerging population of tuberculosis patients from the economically sound strata with high-profile jobs. Affirming that the higher economic strata is contracting the disease at a fast pace, the founder member of the Mumbai District Tuberculosis Control Society, Prof (Dr) KC Mohanty, pointed to lowering immunity levels as the main culprit.

“Though it was commonly believed that TB is a poor man’s illness, there is equal affliction in all strata. Due to the hectic lifestyle and consumption of food loaded with chemical residues of insecticides, pesticides and preservatives, immunity levels are going down. More affluent people are now being diagnosed with TB of the glands, bones, joints, spine, reproductory organs and the brain. It is three times more than the number five years ago,” disclosed Dr Mohanty.

Apart from his assignments at the KJ Somaiya College, Grant Medical College and Sir J J Group of Hospitals, Dr Mohanty is the honorary chest physician to the Governor of Maharashtra.

Smoking, alcoholism, stress and food habits play a predominant role in lowering immunity levels, indicates a study conducted by Dr Mohanty. “At all the hospitals in the city where I provide consultancy, we are seeing an increase in TB patients from the higher income strata,” he said.

Mumbai’s slums, over-crowded public spaces and public transport due to the bludgeoning migratory population have become fertile breeding grounds for the TB bacilli. Statistics of the Union Health Ministry indicate that the disease is fast spreading. The rate of infection in Mumbai is 35 to 40 per cent.

The TB graph has also shot up as 85 per cent of the HIV / AIDS patients contract TB. Both, Dixshit and Jagan continue to abstain from work for long periods during the course of their treatment. “I am devastated, I cannot imagine how I could have got TB,” whispered a weak Dixshit. A chain smoker, Dixshit survived on hot beverages for long periods.

Though government figures point to 3.5 lakh clinical TB cases in Mumbai, sources in the Health Ministry say the numbers are much more. “A majority of the people from all strata carry the dormant TB bacilli. Statistics of the Union Health Ministry indicate that an estimated 75 lakh carry the TB bacilli in Mumbai and can be infected by it during their life time if immunity levels are lowered,” revealed Dr Mohanty.

Clinicians implementing the Central Government’s DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy Short-term) programme in the city feel that there must be an emergency declared on the control of TB, to arrest its fast spread. On April 30, 1993, the World Health Organisation had declared such an emergency  in London. India is a signatory to that resolution.

According to medical practitioners, the situation is alarming. Controlling the spread of TB will be a daunting task, they disclosed.

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