Haryana to launch DOTS programme for TB patients

Chandigarh, Oct 13 (UNI) Haryana will shortly launch Directly Observed Treatment Short (DOTS) course Plus Programme for those tuberculosis patients who have become multi drug resistant due to incomplete and inadequate TB treatment.

With the introduction of this programme, Haryana will be the first one in north India and third in the country after Maharashtra and Gujarat to provide free second line treatment to TB patients.

Haryana Health Minister Kartar Devi said the cost of the treatment of multi drug resistant patients came to be about Rs one lakh per patient, which was free of cost under Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP).

She said in the first phase of DOTS Plus Programme, seven districts of the state -- Rohtak, Panipat, Sonepat, Jind, Karnal, Jhajjar and Bhiwani -- would be covered.

In the second phase, DOT Plus Programme would cover the rest of the districts of the state. Indoor facility would now be available to DOT Plus cases in the department of Chest and TB, PGIMS, Rohtak.

Treatment under DOT plus would start from October this year, she added.

She said RNTCP was being implemented throughout Haryana to control effectively tuberculosis which took a toll of four lakh people every year and had become a major killer disease in the country.

At present, there were nearly 35,591 TB patients in Haryana who had access under the highly effective Directly Observed Treatment Strategy.

UNI MA GL HS1935