Confidential dialogue between a health care provider and a patient that helps a patient to define his/her feelings, cope with stress, and to make informed decisions regarding treatment.
The patient should be counselled at all the three phases i.e.,
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Pre-treatment counselling` |
A Treatment Supporter can be any person such as a Medical Officer, MPWs, community volunteers working with the program etc. Even a patient’s relative or family member can be a Treatment Supporter.
As per NTEP guidelines, salaried NTEP/General Health System staff may also be assigned as treatment supporters for a patient. However, they will not be eligible for any honorarium.
A patient can only be linked to one treatment supporter at a time in Nikshay.
Contact tracing is a process to identify people who are at a high risk of developing TB due to their contact with a known TB case.
The aim of contact tracing is to find other people with TB disease and those infected with TB
All close contacts, especially household contacts of a Pulmonary TB patient, should be screened for TB.
In paediatric TB patients, reverse contact tracing for the search of any active TB case in the child's household must be undertaken.
Particular attention should be paid to contacts with the highest susceptibility to TB infection.
Public Health Action is conducted under the NTEP programme to support and prevent further health complications among TB patients after diagnosis.
Figure: Various activities under Public Health Action
Almost 38% of TB deaths are associated with the use of tobacco. The prevalence of TB is three times higher among ever-smokers as compared to that of never-smokers. Mortality from TB is three to four times higher among ever-smokers as compared to never-smokers. Smoking contributes to 50% of male deaths in the 25-69 age group from TB in India.
The presence of tuberculosis disease during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum is known to result in unfavourable outcomes for both pregnant women and their infants. These outcomes include a roughly two-fold increased risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction, and a six-fold increase in perinatal death.
Screen TB patients in Pregnancy & Lactating Patients
About 10% TB deaths globally have been attributed to alcohol as a risk factor(WHO, Global TB Report 2017). Alcohol abuse is associated with threefold increase in risk of contracting tuberculosis.
Side effects of anti TB drugs in this situation might get aggravated.
Figure: Impact of Alcoholism on TB patients
Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 broad groups of conditions.
As a consequence of urbanization as well as social and economic development, there has been a rapidly growing epidemic of Diabetes Mellitus(DM). India has the second largest number of diabetic people in the world.
Screen TB patients for symptoms of diabetes
Figure: Screening steps for TB - Diabetic Patients
Several medical conditions are risk factors for TB and poor TB treatment outcomes. Similarly, TB can complicate the course of some diseases. Therefore, it is important to identify these comorbidities in people diagnosed with TB to ensure early diagnosis and improved outcomes. When these conditions are highly prevalent in the general population, they can significantly contribute to the TB burden. Consequently, reducing the prevalence of these conditions can help prevent TB.
