India’s unique “adopt a TB-patient” initiative finds over a thousand “Mitras’’

There was an enrollment of more than a lakh patients since the announcement on Sep 9

The Health Ministry’s unique “adopt a TB-patient” (Ni-kshay Mitras) initiative -- probably the only one-of-its-kind in the world -- announced on September 9 saw the enrollment of 1,78,443 TB patients and 1667 Ni-kshay Mitras (donor) till Sunday evening.

The programme was brought in to fill the critical ``community’’ elements into India’s fight towards the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan aimed at eliminating TB by 2025.

“Although the efforts of the government are yielding significant results, the community and the institutions in the society could play a critical role in filling the gaps and addressing the social determinants, thereby contributing to the national goal,’’ said a Health Ministry official.

He added that for the effective engagement of the community in the path towards ending TB in India, the Health Ministry was implementing the community support to TB patients - the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan.

Ni-kshay Mitra (Donor) for this programme includes co-operative societies, corporates, elected representatives, individuals, institutions, non-governmental organisations, political parties and partners who can support by adopting the health facilities (for individual donor), blocks/urban wards/districts/States for accelerating the response against TB to complement the government efforts, as per the district-specific requirements in coordination with the district administration.

According to the Health Ministry the State and the district administration would support Ni-kshay Mitras in prioritising the districts and in providing guidance on the critical gap analysis and district-specific needs.

The support provided to the patient under this initiative is in addition to the free diagnostics, free drugs and Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana provided by the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to all the TB patients notified from both the public and the private sector.