New Delhi: Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Thursday asserted that India is “very close” to achieving the goal of eliminating tuberculosis as he launched the Joint Squad for Health (JOSH) teams that will bring together more than 58,000 youth volunteers to strengthen grassroots mobilisation in the fight against the disease.
India’s TB incidence, he noted, has declined by 21 per cent compared with a 12 per cent global decline, while the country’s treatment coverage has reached 92 per cent against 78 per cent globally, and called for a “last push” to achieve the TB-free India goal.
“Today is a very historic day on which we are launching the JOSH team,” Nadda said at the national launch of the initiative at Bharat Mandapam here.
“We have reached very close to the target. We need to give the last push,” he said.
The minister said the government has involved MPs, MLAs, mayors and councillors in the TB elimination campaign through workshops and other programmes, but the effort cannot succeed without the participation of volunteers and grassroots workers.
Nadda said the JOSH initiative was developed in discussions with Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State for Defence Sanjay Seth, with the participation of the Sports and Defence ministries.
The JOSH teams will bring together My Bharat volunteers and NCC cadets to work at the grassroots level and strengthen community participation in the TB elimination campaign.
“We do not want to confine this campaign within any boundaries. We want to break those boundaries and move forward,” Nadda said, calling for the government, communities and citizens to work together.
He said the campaign will go beyond preventive measures and awareness to focus on screening, diagnosis, treatment, community participation, active case finding and identification of asymptomatic TB patients.
Nadda highlighted the use of technology in expanding screening, saying handheld X-ray machines equipped with artificial intelligence tools can help identify people who need further testing.
He also referred to molecular testing, saying it can help detect TB and identify whether a patient has drug-resistant disease.
Nadda said TB is not an incurable disease and highlighted the shorter BPaLM regimen for drug-resistant TB, under which treatment can be completed in six months.
He urged JOSH volunteers to work with Nikshay volunteers, Nikshay activists and Nikshay Mitras to ensure TB patients receive medicines and nutritional support.
Nadda said the government provides Rs 1,000 per month to every TB patient, besides nutritional support and free medicines.
“Now our work is to detect the cases and take them to medicines, ensure that they get medicines as well as nutrition,” he said.
The health minister said the JOSH teams have been given a pilot task covering all blocks in 55 districts across 11 states.
Their activities will be recorded in real time through a new JOSH Team feature on the TB Mukt Bharat app, he said.
Nadda said the feature will allow the work of the teams to be monitored digitally, with information reaching Class-I officers through the app.
He said 67,933 gram panchayats have already been declared TB-free, crediting elected representatives, volunteers and community members for the achievement.
