Gurugram, March 14, 2023: Ahead of the World TB Day, the 600-bed Artemis Hospital has launched a campaign for lung health and TB awareness among people living in the urban slums of Gurugram. The initiative will run for six months and cover thousands of slum residents and migrants living in the district.
As part of the campaign, Artemis Hospital, in association with an NGO, will conduct a door-to-door health education program to make people aware about the importance of preventing tobacco usage, healthy lifestyle practices for improving lung health, the causes and symptoms of TB, and measures that can be taken to protect against the disease. Various tools will be used including posters and flyers, street plays, community meetings, WhatsApp messages, quiz programs for children and young adults, and women’s self-help groups.
Free TB screening camps will be organized for slum residents. They will be encouraged to get screened for TB. A referral system will be established to connect people found TB positive with the local NTEP or Public health centers for the necessary treatment and follow-up. The hospital will be providing personal counselling of TB patients by trained personnel. A support group will be formed among for TB patients, TB champions (those willing to quite tobacco usage), and local influencers and healthcare workers in the community to ensure completion of treatment.
“As the TB officer for Haryana, I am pleased to extend my full support to Artemis Hospital and their commendable efforts in combating TB. I congratulate them on this wonderful initiative and assure them of our cooperation from the district and state levels. Let us work together to make this a model for the world and showcase it to the state government and central TB division.” – said Dr. Rajesh Raju, TB Officer, Haryana.
We have made significant progress in our fight against TB, with over 2223 designated microscopy centers where we can directly diagnose TB patients, especially those who have been coughing for more than two weeks. We also process around 50 samples daily using molecular machines and obtain all the results directly. Within two to three hours, we can determine whether a patient has tuberculosis and whether it is sensitive or resistant to rifampicin. However, we still have a long way to go in achieving our goal of treating all TB patients. I urge all doctors and government hospitals to support us in this endeavor, so that we can identify and treat as many patients as possible to control TB.” – said Dr. Keshav, District TB Officer Gurgaon
Said Dr. Devlina Chakravarty, MD & CEO, Artemis Hospital, Gurugram: “We are fully committed to the Government’s mission of making India TB-free by 2025, five years ahead of the UN SDG of 2030. Slums are breeding grounds of infectious diseases, including TB, due to over-crowding and poor living conditions. About 10.2% of the total slum population of Haryana now lives in Gurugram, according to the 2011 Census. Many of them do not have access to national health programs. The war on TB clearly cannot be won without targeting urban slums, so we at Artemis Hospital are delighted to launch this campaign. The various interventions planned as part of this initiative will lead to improved lung health and reduced TB rates among slum residents of the district, as well as increased awareness and understanding of the disease and best practices.”
Dr Bhavin Vadera, USAID/ India, addressed the event by mentioning about the need of corporate and multisectoral engagement for the Nation’s mission against Tuberculosis. The Govt with all efforts in the program, needs support from Corporate organizations like Artemis Hospitals for reaching out to the unreachable population. “It’s a FIGHtbACK” drive by the Artemis Hospitals will be a great example for the world in what the Corporate Hospitals can do more in this mission to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals pertaining to ending TB by 2025.
Most of the efforts of Artemis Hospital for the TB campaign will be focused around the two public health centers at Kasan and Bhangrola where most of Gurugram’s slum population resides. The hospital has already been providing nutrition support to over 20 TB patients for the last many months.
India has the world’s highest TB burden, with about 26 lakh people contracting the disease and around 4 lakh dying from it every year. The economic burden of TB in terms of loss of lives, income and workdays is also substantial. TB usually affects the most economically productive age group of society, resulting in a significant loss of working days and pushing TB patients further into the vortex of poverty.