52% of patients transmit TB to kin
BMC has launched a campaign to eradicate the disease from Mumbai PAEDIATRIC TB ON THE RISE
Two Western Railway (WR) ticket checkers have achieved the impressive milestone of collecting over Rs1 crore each as penalties from travellers without tickets or for carrying unreserved luggage.
Deputy ticket inspector KD Oza from Rajkot Division collected Rs1.13 crore from 14,928 cases in 2022-23 until February, while deputy ticket inspector Zahid Qureshi, working with the Churchgate flying squad, collected Rs1.06 crore with 13,116 detections from January to December 2022. Senior ticket examiner from the Ahmedabad Division, Ajmer Singh, “showcased outstanding performance” and Rs93.47 lakh in 17,806 cases.
Not to be left behind, the WR’s women ticket-checking staff also accomplished collections in lakhs. Deputy CTI Shail Tiwari from the Ahmedabad division topped the list with Rs54.70 lakh through detection of 7,293 cases up to February 2023. CTI Geetaben Vasava from the Churchgate flying squad collected Rs51.19 lakh from 7,085 cases.
The WR earned Rs158.28 crore as ticket-checking revenue from 23.70 lakh cases registered during from April 2022 to February 2023, an increase of 68.01% over the corresponding period last year.
WR officials said that the job of a ticket checker not only requires skill and tactfulness to detect deceitful passengers but also requires good knowledge of rules and convincing skills to collect penalty amounts.
Nearly 52% of Tuberculosis (TB) patients' relatives tested positive in a 'break the chain campaign' undertaken by the TB department of the BMC with an aim to eradicate the disease from Mumbai.
According to the data provided, 7,656 households were screened, of which around 3,950 latent tuberculosis cases were detected since July 2022.
Senior officials said they have received good response during the campaign and were able to detect latent TB cases earliest and treatment was started for them. Meanwhile, the civic health department has also planned to screen people at the workplace to detect those who have come in contact with household TB positive patients. Last year in July, the BMC had started screening the close contacts and relatives of TB patients with the help of Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) testing.
This technique helped the civic means nearly 75%. We have been taking several measures to eradicate TB. Moreover, patients are given TB preventive therapy (TBPT) once a week for a total of 12 weeks,” said Dr Mangala Gomare, Executive Health Officer.
Meanwhile, under the National Tuberculosis Eradication Program, the civic body had taken the initiative to prevent the TB spread to achieve the goal of a TB-free Mumbai. Under this initiative, the sputum of the close contact or relatives of TB patients were taken and a test report was available within 24 hours.
Dr Varsha Puri, Deputy Executive Health Officer (TB) said “IGRA should not be limited to drug-resistant patients as they are planning to reach the workplaces, old age homes and orphanages where there is TB patient will be screened. However we are discussing this with the higher authorities to scale it up. With this initiative we will be able to break the chain of transmission,” she said.
MUMBAI:
City has recorded the highest number of paediatric TB cases in the last five years. According to the data, there were 3,109 paediatric cases in 2021 which further increased to 4,523 last year, a rise of 45.48%. However, the cases kept on increasing from 2,178 which was recorded in 2018, followed by 3,692 in 2019 and 3,882 in 2020. Doctors have attributed this surge to the pandemic as children were not going out due to which there was very limited contact. “City was under lockdown due to which schools, playing grounds were shut and children were not allowed to venture out which made them more susceptible to infection in families with active TB patients. Thus, we can see more paediatric patients postpandemic,” said a paediatrician.