The survey began on December 1 and will continue till the 31st. “We are happy that positivity for TB, as per this survey, seems low,” additional civic chief Suresh Kakani said on Thursday.
However, in comparison to the findings of a similar drive last year, the results are 2.5 times higher for TB, as merely 170 patients were found in the 2019 survey.
Rise in TB figures not surprising as many missed checkup: BMC officer
By contrast, at 36, more leprosy patients were found in the 2019 survey. Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage.
BMC deputy executive health officer Dr Daksha Shah said this year’s increased numbers were not surprising because many people had missed out on going for checkups or treatment during the complete lockdown in the March-to-June period due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “In fact, the aim of this year’s survey was to find more patients who had ignored their symptoms,” she said.
Government services for TB patients had come to a standstill during the initial lockdown. In Maharashtra, detection of new TB cases dropped 47.8% in comparison to the same period last year.
Similar data for Mumbai isn’t available, but the city has 60,000 cases annually. The city is known as the country’s TB capital; it is also the worst-hit as far as drug-resistant TB strains are concerned.
During the present door-to-door survey, which was carried out in high-risk and crowded areas, BMC health teams screened 50,00,434 people. “Our teams found 9,501 people with TB like symptoms,” said Kakani. After the samples were picked up for testing, only 434 tested positive. They will be enrolled into the government’s free TB treatment programme.
While the BMC teams found 984 people with suspected symptoms of leprosy, only 12 finally had it.
The BMC had planned to end the house-to-house visits by December 15. It has extended the exercise now by another fortnight in order to allow more patients to be detected and enrolled into the system. “Houses that were locked will be revisited in this period,” said Kakani.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/mumbai-bmc-drive-finds-434-tb-patients-up-2-5-times-from-2019-leprosy-cases-dip/articleshow/79949389.cms