Karnataka has recorded 23-25 cases of persons contracting Tuberculosis (TB) after fully recovering from coronavirus infection, according to state health minister Dr K Sudhakar. As a precaution, Sudhakar said on Thursday that TB screening will be conducted for all persons recovering from Covid-19. Earlier, the health minister had asked people to voluntarily get themselves evaluated for TB.
Sudhakar, on Tuesday, told the Vidhana Soudha that there are more than 28 lakh people who recovered from Covid-19 in Karnataka so far and a special drive has been launched to detect TB early, since both TB and Covid affect the lungs.
“There are more than 28 lakh people in the state who have recovered from the COVID-19 infection. Since both COVID-19 and TB infect the lungs we have launched a special drive to ensure early detection of TB in people who have recovered from the virus,” said Soudha after launching the special TB test drive, which will be held across the state from August 16 to 31.
The minister said that since 2017 as many as 75 lakh suspected TB cases have been identified and 88 per cent of them have been tested. About 3.9 per cent have been detected with tuberculosis, he said. He also said due to the Covid pandemic, the TB evaluation drives have been slightly hit.
The Union Health Ministry also said in Lok Sabha that there was a 25% fall in the number of TB cases reported in 2020 in the country compared to the previous year. A press release by the government of India assured that special efforts are being made through intensified case finding in OPD settings as well as through active case finding campaigns in the community by all states.
“Moreover, there is not enough evidence currently to suggest that there has been an increase in TB cases due to COVID-19 or due to increased case finding efforts,” the statement said.
With focus shifting to Covid-19 from TB, it remains to be seen if the disease will be eradicated by 2025 as per Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim and former Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s ‘TB Harega Desh Jeetega’ 2025 campaign.
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