Government launches special drive to check tuberculosis spread

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government Tuesday launched a drive to evaluate Tuberculosis among those who have recovered from Covid-19.

Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said that there are more than 28 lakh people in the state who have recovered from the infection and as Covid-19 and TB infect the lungs government has launched this special drive to ensure early detection of TB in people who have recovered from Covid.

It is said that a door-to-door survey to detect the four common symptoms of TB will be carried out by healthcare and ASHA workers. Also, the survey will be conducted from the PHC level and the houses of all Covid-recovered patients will be visited. Their family members, primary and secondary contacts will be identified and screened for TB.

In  2020, Union Health Ministry had recommended TB screening for all Covid patients as the prevalence of TB among Covid patients has been found to be 0.37-4.47 percent in different studies.