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Catholics in India face the frontline of TB crisis

Coalition of church health organizations work to control the killer disease in four Indian states
Catholics in India face the frontline of TB crisis

School students participate in a program to raise awareness about tuberculosis on World TB Day at Chennai railway station in southern India on March 24. A coalition of church organizations has been working to reduce rate of the disease. (Photo by IANS)

Published: May 16, 2017 04:10 AM GMT
Updated: May 16, 2017 05:38 AM GMT

India’s fight against tuberculosis is turning “very grave” as patients become drug-resistant because of peoples’ ignorance, says a Catholic nun, who leads the church’s campaign against the disease in the country. 

Every hour more than 50 people die of tuberculosis in India, a fact that has mobilized teams of church health workers from Coalition for AIDS and Related Diseases to fight the infectious disease in heavily affected areas.

"The situation is very grave in the country and is spreading. The problem is that the treatment for tuberculosis takes a long time and people stop in between,” Sister Nirmala Mulackal, who heads the coalition.

The enormity of the disease that kills more than 1,200 people each day has forced the coalition to make the fight against it a priority in villages in the most affected areas of four Indian states, said Sister Mulackal, a member of the Sisters of the Charity of Nazareth congregation.

The coalition is a partnership of Catholic health organizations and intuitions across India and conducts advocacy activities in 29 districts across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bihar states.

It is part of a larger network bound together by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India that includes 500 hospitals, over 2,000 primary care facilities and more than 200 social work organizations.

In several remote areas, the infectious disease becomes drug resistant as patients stop taking medicine without completing the course.

A new study released recently said India is among four badly hit nations, where the deadliest form of the disease is worsening the situation. 

The treatment for the disease that generally affects the lungs, requires a medicinal course for 2-6 months but patients due to a lack of awareness stop it soon after they start feeling better, the nun said.

Currently, almost 40 percent of all multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis cases, about 230,000 — are in Russia, India, the Philippines and South Africa, according to the Lancet Infectious Disease Journal. Its study predicts that by 2040 drug resistance will hit an alarming rate and demand an urgent drug innovation.  

India has the largest number of tuberculosis cases in the world. In 2015, India had 2.8 million cases up from 2.2 million in 2011, according to the World Health Organization.

While tuberculosis killed 220,000 in 2014, the toll rose to 480,000 in 2015. That means as many as 1,300 people can die from the disease on any given day.

Abhilesh Thomas, national program manager for the coalition told ucanews.com that typically, their volunteers travel around villages and speak about the disease, its symptoms and the dangers if left untreated. They also help people conduct medical tests, make medicines available and assist patients complete their course of treatment. 

Since 2011, over 42,000 people have been diagnosed through the coalition's efforts and treated. Nearly 16,000 community meetings were conducted to spread awareness about tuberculosis and over 1 million door-to-door visits were made to inform families.

"In all the cases we initiated, our patients completed their treatment," Sister Mulackal said.

Over 1,000 villages are now "ideal villages" in which all residents are aware of the disease and are committed to controlling it. As well as this, the coalition has spread awareness through interventions in schools, Islamic Madrasas and prisons, she said.

Thomas said that the church-initiated project is funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international funding organization that provides resources to fight such diseases, particularly in developing nations.

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