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NT Bureau
Chennai, Mar 24:
 

Mayor M Subramanian giving away prizes to student winners of an essay contest at a function today to commemorate the World TB Day.

        More than 20 lakh people are affected by tuberculosis and nearly 4 lakh deaths occur due to this epidemic in India.

        On the occasion of World TB Day, the Corporation of Chennai reaffirmed its commitment to take up a series of health measures under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme.

        Presiding over a function to create awareness on tuberculosis, Mayor M Subramanian today recalled the history behind the discovery of the cure for this dreaded bacteria. 'Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by declaring that he had discovered the cause for tuberculosis, the TB bacillus (a bacterial germ). At the time of Koch's discovery, the TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people,' he said. Hence, 24 March (today) commemorated that occasion in 1882 when Dr Koch made the breakthrough in his research.

        World TB Day was being observed each year to create awareness on the tuberculosis which still remained an epidemic, causing deaths of millions of people, especially in third world. Koch's discovery opened a sure way towards diagnosing and a proven cure for tuberculosis, the Mayor said.

        The affected persons would have regular cough for a period of 3 weeks, poor appetite, weight loss, fever at continuous intervals and sputum with blood.

        He said drugs to cure TB were available at the primary health centres (PHCs) of the Corporation and they were given free of cost to the patients. He asked everyone to make full use of these medicines stocked at the PHCs and health outposts of the Corporation.

        He said 2.70 lakh people in Chennai suffered from TB out of which 46,000 were identified by the Corporation and being given treatment free of cost. Already, 88 per cent of those given treatment were completely cured, the Mayor informed.

        Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni asked the TB patients to take medicine without break for six months for a complete cure. Stating it was necessary for the whole family to go for health check-up, if one of its members were afflicted by TB, Lakhoni explained that if medicine was not taken properly at regular intervals, there was always a chance of the disease to rebound.

        He said all government and private doctors were given training on how to handle TB patients. There were a total of 40 centres to treat the patients.

        Councillor Saidai Ravi said 8 out of 100 suffer from TB and nearly 60 per cent of HIV/AIDS victims also suffered from TB in the world.

        Students who emerged winners at essay contests held in schools on the subject of tuberculosis were given away prizes by the Mayor. The Mayor also released a poster to mark the World TB Day which was received by the Commissioner Lakhoni.

        Assistant Commissioner Manikavasan, Assistant Health Officer Guhanathan, Standing Committee, Education, president Janaki Kanniappan, Zone 8 chairman Ezhumalai, Councilors Suseela Gopalakrishnan, Ko Si Mani and J Karunanidhi also took part in the function.