Private Hospital Sector Can Play Major Role In Prevention, Treatment Of TB: Dr Naresh Trehan

On Friday, Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta Hospitals said that the private sector can play a huge role in preventing and treating tuberculosis by actively participating in detection and screening programs. 

"Detection and treatment play a crucial role in the prevention and management of tuberculosis. Currently, a vast majority of patients go undetected and untreated in India, significantly increasing the disease burden. The private hospital sector can play an important role in the prevention and treatment of TB by taking on a larger, more active role in screening, said" Dr Trehan said at a gathering of private hospitals from across Delhi NCR at The Claridges Hotel in New Delhi. 

The private hospitals gathered to contribute to the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), and expand the impact of Mission TB Free India, Medanta – in association with The Union, under the guidance of Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

As part of the programme, deliberation was held with Apollo Medical College, Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital, Amrita Hospital and stakeholders from a number of other hospitals. They were encouraged to support the national initiative by adopting the ‘Active Case Finding’ model of TB detection.

Speaking with BW Healthcare World, Dr Bornali Datta, Director, Pulmonary Medicine, Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, Medanta said that TB is such a scourge that unless all stakeholders, subsuming private and corporate hospitals, NGOs, and the community at large does not come together it will be very difficult to eliminate TB from the country.

"The 2025 target set by the government has provided a huge impetus for everyone to join in as there is no way that the government alone can do it. Corporate hospitals are placed very well and it's upto them how much they can do, as they can do a lot to reduce the TB stack apart from the clinical treatments and services," Dr Datta said.

Furthering the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan, Deputy Director General of Central TB Division, MoHFW, Rajender P. Joshi, announced the private hospitals’ engagement program. The engagement program is set to encourage private hospitals to actively contribute to TB screening and assist the state in bridging the gap in TB care services. 

Using its active-case finding methodology, Medanta with its community health workers and village-level grassroots health workers (ASHAs) regularly conducts door-to-door screenings to detect individuals at potential risk in Haryana. For on-spot diagnosis, they use sputum analysis, digital chest X-ray and an artificial intelligence-based tool (Qure.AI) followed by a highly-advanced confirmatory molecular-diagnostic test (GeneXpert).

The hospital said that all these diagnostic facilities are available in dedicated mobile vans that travel to villages as part of the Mission. Confirmed TB cases are referred to government hospitals for initiation of DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy Short) course therapy.

Additionally stating that the block-level screenings, being done as cluster randomized control trials, have defined an effective model for finding active cases. "The initial results have been promising as the team could diagnose 200 patients from four blocks of Karnal in just five months," the hospital said.

“We have made significant progress in strengthening the infrastructure for TB treatment. However, we must recognize that to scale access to therapy, multi-stakeholder models through partnerships with private hospitals are the way forward. Collaboration with Medanta and other private hospitals is a great step towards achieving the national goal of TB elimination by 2025,” said Rajender P. Joshi.