Published on LMS

The Medical Officer-TB Control (MO-TC) at the TB Unit (TU) has the overall responsibility for the management of the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) at the sub-district level and is assisted by the Senior Treatment Supervisor (STS) and the Senior TB Lab Supervisor (STLS).

The MO-TC is responsible for supervising the work of the TU and of the STS and STLS, in addition to his/her other responsibilities. These visits are conducted on a systematic basis and the protocol to be followed during these visits is shown in the figure below.

At the Tuberculosis Unit (TU), the presiding supervisory team uses a standardized checklist mandated by the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) during their periodic supervisory visits. The report and copies of the checklist may be shared with appropriate authorities within 1 week of completing the supervisory visit.

These appropriate authorities include the Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and respective district and state authorities, who will in turn initiate remedial measures in a timely and appropriate manner.

The Senior Treatment Supervisor (STS) is a part of the Tuberculosis Unit (TU) team at the sub-district level in the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP).

The STS is responsible for supervising the treatment of the patients and works closely with treatment supporters and Primary Health Care system.

The objective of these supervisory visits is to supervise patients' treatment and to monitor the programme at the TU level. They also support the treatment supporters to carry out their role efficiently and troubleshoot the issue that they might face.

Concept of Supervision

Index TB patient: Initially identified person of any age with new or recurrent TB in a specific household or other comparable settings in which others may have been exposed. The Index TB patient is the person on whom a contact investigation is centred, but is not necessarily the source/ primary case.

Contact Tracing plays an important role in the detection of all those who are secondarily infected for proper diagnosis and prompt treatment. This process can be recorded and reported in Ni-kshay under the ‘contact tracing’ option. The process of recording contact tracing in Ni-kshay is given below.

Process Overview

Identifying target audience is a key step in the process of developing Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM) strategy.

Specific target audience need to be addressed to prevent hinderances in achieving the programme objectives.

Tribal people (10.4 Cr, 8.6% of total population) have higher prevalence (703 per 100,000) of TB compared to national average (256 per 100,000).10.4% of all TB notified patients are from tribal communities. The National TB program has prioritized this subgroup of population through Tribal Action Plans since 2005.