TB Control

India has the largest number of T.B. cases in the world. Half of the adults in India are probably infected with T.B. Two million people develop the disease in this country each year and half a million die of it annually. That means that roughly 1,000 die from T.B. every day..about one person every minute! It kills more people in India than all other infectious diseases. Unless urgent action is taken, more than four million people in India will die of T.B. in the next decade.

It accounts for a third of the global tuberculosis burden and has twice as many T.B. cases as China. Poverty, the social stigma attached to T.B., and the long treatment period stretching for six months have added to this already difficult public health problem. Poor diagnostic and treatment by doctors as well as the emergence of drug-resistant forms of T.B., coupled with the AIDS epidemic, have further complicated the situation.

95% of the people from rural India do not know about T.B. and AIDS. Many are also not aware that T.B. is curable, resulting in many deaths that have been attributed to this disease. The government is also unable to educate people about T.B. as well as the NGOs due to their financial constraints. The medicines are expensive and are not within reach of the poor, as the hospitals are located in urban areas away from many of the villages.

Many of the T.B. affected people resort to selling their belongings in order to purchase the medicine. Because of the cost of medicine and the length of the treatment, many die of utter poverty and starvation.

NASA works to identify T.B. patients and the village health workers take them to the government hospitals for medicine. NASA conducts many health camps and gives education on T.B. NASA uses a slide show and street plays to create awareness of T.B.