Meghalaya: IMA extends support for ending Tuberculosis

Shillong: Tuberculosis, the world's most significant infectious disease has emerged as the leading infection that kills after COVID; the Meghalaya chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) recently held a brainstorming session on India's target of ending the menace of tuberculosis by 2025.

"Delayed diagnosis, drug defaulting, uncontrolled co-morbidities like diabetes, reactivation of latent TB, the emergence of drug-resistant variants, a limited number of accredited laboratories for high-end drug sensitivity testing, and malnutrition in the backdrop of low socio-economic status are plausible factors negatively affecting the tuberculosis control programs," a North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) official said.

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Elucidating the implication of the natural history of tuberculosis, GK Medhi, Head of Community Medicine said that the elimination of TB in the country within the next 30 months from now is an "abstract goal with a cautious optimism" from a public health perspective.

Speaking on the occasion, Director NEIGRIHMS, Nalin Mehta said that ending TB within a short time may "indeed be a tall order, but in human endeavors, such urgency makes it all the more important to come together to brainstorm for a national cause".