Visakhapatnam: GIMSR bags ₹31 lakh ICMR project for research on elimination of TB in tribal population

The GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (GIMSR), Visakhapatnam, has been awarded a research grant from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to design an effective programme in alignment with the national objective of eliminating tuberculosis (TB) among the tribal population of the country

The GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (GIMSR), Visakhapatnam, has been awarded a research grant from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to design an effective programme in alignment with the national objective of eliminating tuberculosis (TB) among the tribal population of the country.

The Principal Investigator Rajyalakshmi, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Medicine at GIMSR, has been sanctioned ₹31 lakh to lead the programme on ‘Comprehensive Tribal Management for Decentralised TB Care Services’ for a period of two years. The ICMR funding is for a year for the entire project.

Dr. Rajyalakshmi coordinates with the authorities at various levels such as the Institutional Ethics Committee, DMHO, tribal authorities concerned, the gram panchayat officials and forest officers, and charts out actions to manage the project’s scientific and other aspects. She is also in charge of micro-planning and project progress apart from ensuring the integrity and safeguarding of obtained data while ensuring the completion, accuracy, and timeliness of the project, according to a statement issued by GIMSR on Friday.

The Comprehensive Tribal TB Management Program for Decentralised TB Care Services project is a multi-centric study involving the tribal population and will be carried out simultaneously in different parts of the country, including Visakhapatnam and Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh), as well as Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, and Meghalaya. Andhra Pradesh consists of 33 tribal groups with a population of approximately 4.2 million. The project has so far covered three mandals of Paderu tribal area of combined Visakhapatnam district.

The co-investigators in the project are Dr. Subbarayudu Boda, Dr. Chaitanya Gujjarlapudi, Dr. N.G. Nagamani, Dr. Kuppli Sai Sushma and Dr. Vennam Bodhi Sri Vidya.

GIMSR has installed an ₹7 lakh worth TruNAAT machine at Hukumpeta Mandal (Paderu) for intensified case detection through camps. It also deployed a mobile X-ray machine for the outreach population to take chest X-rays as a part of diagnosis of TB and recruited six local tribal people.

The Indian government under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare already has a National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), which is a Centrally sponsored programme being implemented under the aegis of the National Health Mission (NHM) with resource sharing between the State Governments and the Central Government.