FDA joins hands with health dept in a bid to rid Maharashtra of TB

It will collect data from 50,000 registered med stores in state with more than 5,000 from city

In a bid to eradicate Tuberculosis (TB) from Maharashtra, for the first time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has joined hands with the state health department by collecting details of TB patients who are seeking treatment in private hospitals.

FDA official said they will be collecting data from 50,000 registered medical stores across the state with more than 5,000 of them in the city. A senior official said on January 17, the FDA has sent notices to all the registered medical stores to provide the required information to the state health officers. “It is essential to have a centralised data of all the TB patients in the state for better treatment that can help meeting the target of the central government for complete eradication of TB by 2025,” added an official from State Health Department. The officers from TB eradication department will be visiting chemists across the city and will keep record of the TB patients and the prescribed medicines. “All the registered medical stores have been instructed to assist the department in the new initiative. We have also told the medical store that the information of all TB drugs coming under schedule H1 should be written separately in a register,” said Arjun Khadtar, joint director of the FDA Drug Department.

He further added there are 47 highly sensitive medicines under scheduled H1 drug out of which 8 medicines are for TB. The sellers of these medicines have to keep a record. “It consists of the name of the patient, address and the doctor’s name, through which the TB patients will be tracked. Action will be taken against drug vendors who do not provide the information,” added Vijay Singhvi, technical officer, FDA.

According to the state health department, their years of observation has revealed that 50 per cent of the TB patients who opt for treatment in private hospitals and physicians lack information about the facilities provided by the state government to patients. Also, often they do not provide any compiled data of the patients coming to them.

Dr Sanjeev Kamble, Joint Director of State TB Department said, “We are left with no option to know how many took treatment and completed it, as private hospital does not give us any proper information so that we could keep a track on such patients.”

The officers from TB eradication department will be visiting chemists across the city and will keep record of the TB patients and the prescribed medicines