State bags award for good health practices :

1. Himachal Pradesh has been awarded for oral presentation on ‘Mukhya Mantri Kshay Rog Nivarna Yojana’ (MMKRNY) during national summit on good replicable practices and innovations in public healthcare system under National Health Mission (NHM) organised at Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat.

2. Health and Family Welfare Minister Vipin Singh Parmar revealed  that the presentation was given by Managing Director, NHM, and Special Secretary, Health, Dr Naveen Jindal who also received this prestigious award. “TB-Mukt Himachal” mobile App, which was launched in the state for generating awareness regarding tuberculosis, also received an award.

3. The state had also been awarded for the innovative scheme under which a tax of Rs1 per liquor bottle has been levied, thus generating revenue amounting to about Rs 8 crore which was being spent on emergency services. Apart from this, 104 Comprehensive Call Centre, which has been playing a significant role in providing health-related consultation, has also been awarded.

4. This was the sixth edition of the summit in which more than 300 participants were present. As many as 37 good practices were presented and 73 emerging good practices were showcased.

Key points :

• ‘TB-Mukt Himachal’ mobile App, which was launched in the state to generate awareness regarding tuberculosis.
• Innovative scheme under which a tax of Rs 1 per liquor bottle has been levied, thus generating revenue amounting to about Rs 8 crore, which is being spent on emergency services.
• 104 Comprehensive Call Centre, which has been playing a significant role in providing health-related consultations.

“MMKRNY" being effectively implemented in Himachal Pradesh :

• State gears up to  end TB by 2023.
• Tuberculosis is a dreaded disease claiming several precious lives every year. Government of India has kept the target of TB elimination by 2025 whereas the State has set to achieve it before 2023 thereby making Himachal the first TB free State of the country.  A New scheme “Mukhya Mantri Kshay Rog Nivarna Yojna”(MMKRNY)  has been launched in Himachal Pradesh  with a motive to achieve the target to end TB by 2023.   As many as 12 CMEs for private practitioners, 12 workshops for Chemists have been conducted across the State under MMKRNY.
•  About 14 thousand TB patients are diagnosed and put on treatment  each year in Himachal Pradesh in Government Health Institutions.  In 2017, against the target of 14070, State diagnosed and put near 15000 new TB patients in the Government Health institutions. Against the target of 2500, near 900 new TB patients were notified from the private sector in the State. There is a gap in notification from private sector in Himachal Pradesh. Nearly 550 TB deaths are reported each year in the Himachal Pradesh.
• Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has been implemented in Himachal Pradesh in a phased manner. Hamirpur is one of the first pilot districts in India to take up the activity in 1995, followed by Kangra and Mandi in 1998.  Entire state was covered in January 2002.Treatment of TB patients is given under direct supervisor which is called DOTS. But due to various reasons some patients do not complete the treatment or take incomplete treatment. Some experts also prescribe TB medicines from the market, which are costly and the patient stop taking drugs in between.
• The incomplete, inadequate treatment and different regimens of treatment lead to emergence of Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDR TB) which does not responding to available drugs. This form of TB is difficult to control and the treatment is also costly. There is no doubt that if TB patients are diagnosed by quality assured laboratories and treated under DOTS by health care system involving all sectors, we can reduce this new form of TB.
• The objective of RNTCP objective is to achieve 90 percent notification rate of all cases and to achieve 90 percent success rate for all new and 85 percent for re-treatment cases.
• “TB Mukt Himachal Abhiyan Pakhwada”-special active case finding campaign will be organized throughout the State in January 2019.