PANAJI
Two national health goals set by the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare to eradicate tuberculosis by the end of this year (2025) and leprosy by the end of 2027 has been dogging the Directorate of Health Services for several months.
Both the diseases, though not extreme public health threats in the State, have been displaying a stubborn prevalence despite efforts to meet the eradication goals.
Over the last couple of years after the Covid-19 threat receded, Goa has been logging on an average five cases of tuberculosis cases daily.
Annually, 2,000 plus people are testing positive with roughly 30,000 tests being carried out, showing the State's struggle to achieve targets in the quest to meet this year-end (2025) deadline to wipe out the disease set nationally.
One of the targets is to have village panchayats 'TB Mukt' where a village achieves the status by logging zero to one cases in a single calendar year with at least 30 samples per 1,000 population tested.
Only two of Goa's 190-odd villages -- Usgao and Shiroda -- earned the 'TB Mukt' status in 2023.
Dr Manish Gaunekar, chief medical officer who heads the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) in the State said the numbers are static and the positivity (cases to tests ratio) has remained low.
The 'India TB Report 2024', meanwhile gives Goa the thumbs-up for logging a much lower number of new cases than the national average.
Goa averaged 133 new cases per one-lakh population in 2023 while nationally the country logs 179 new cases per one-lakh population. But, the State's mortality rate among TB patients has been higher than the national average for two successive years of 2022 and 2023, the report said and attributed it to alcoholism and type-II diabetes among TB patients.
Goa's TB elimination programme lays thrust on supporting patients with treatment and also monetary support to supplement diet.
The health authorities have also tweaked the strategy holding hyper-local interventions to continue the quest to make Goa TB free by this year end.
At primary health centre level, awareness sessions and TB screenings are being conducted where suspect cases are screened with X-Rays taken using a portable, hand-held machine.
Leprosy, meanwhile also has stubbornly persisted in Goa with dozens of people testing positive for the physically deforming disease contracted by a bacterial infection.
Last year (2024) the State had over five dozen new leprosy cases, including one child, DHS data revealed.
Last week while observing the 'World Leprosy Day', DHS launched the Sparsh Leprosy Awareness Campaign for the next fortnight during which it hopes to address the societal stigma still associated with the disease.
Primary and community health centres have been roped in and will collaborate with panchayats and urban local bodies to hold awareness initiatives until February 13.
The 'Sparsh' campaign will also involve health centres engaging with other departments like Urban Development, Rural Development Agency, social justice & empowerment among others, to hold IEC (information, education and communication) activities.
