Health Minister Launches TB Awareness Video on NTRI’s 65th Anniversary Celebration!

Earlier in July, the chief minister flagged off 23 vans nestled with digital x-ray machines for detecting earlier stages of TB across the state.

Health Minister Ma Subramaniam launched a TB awareness video marking the 65th-anniversary celebration of the National Tuberculosis Research Institute (NTRI). The event was conducted in Chennai and the minister participated as chief guest. The main aim of releasing this video is to create awareness regarding the preventive measures suggested for Tuberculosis.

While briefing the press, the health minister said that the state government is working to make Tamil Nadu free from TB by 2025. He shared that the government along with the centre is working on several health programmes that are going to be supportive of this vision.

As per him, National Tuberculosis Research Institute, Chennai has been working robustly on developing high-end medicines that would work on shortening the duration of TB treatment from six months to nine months. The institute is also working with a module as per which the treatment can be done through injection. In order to assist the institute, the state government has also increased the funds by 36.9 crores and the final amount is now INR 68.22 crores.

The health minister also said that the state government is very keen on eradicating TB from the state. The chief minister himself takes overlooks the progress of the TB-free Tamil Nadu by 2025 mission. He shared that in order to make this mission successful, we have to reduce the TB incidence rate.

Namakkal and Karur are two districts that have successfully reduced their TB incidence rate by 40% and 20% respectively. The state government has awarded them with a certificate of appreciation. Along with this, Nagapattinam, Kanniyakumari, Sivaganga, the Nilgiris, Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai have also been awarded.

Earlier in July 2022, Chief Minister MK Stalin flagged off twenty-three vans installed with digital x-ray machines. These vans are going to join the ten vehicles that are already working in the state. The x-ray machines equipped in these vans do not work on electricity and offer instant results.

The major objective of these vans is to reach crowded residential areas, old age homes, and industrial markets. The vans are equipped with machinery and they provide medicines, counselling and financial assistance to the patients. TB free Tamil Nadu - 2025' campaign was launched by the state government of India to reduce the aims to reduce the TB cases in the state.