Guwahati, April 7 : The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, the permanent association of the Catholic Bishops of India, has come forward to spread awareness regarding tuberculosis in the remote areas of the Northeat.
District tuberculosis officer (Kamrup), Monty Hazarika, said the CBCI was operating under the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) here to spread awareness against the disease.
“The CBCI was selected keeping in mind the large network of churches and missionary schools under it,” she said, adding that the awareness campaign against the disease was expected to receive a much-needed booster with the tie-up.
“There is no healthcare infrastructure in many villages. However, the churches have reached those areas years ago. We can spread awareness against tuberculosis in those places through the tie-up with CBCI,” she added.
“Under this agreement, we have trained members of the Catholic body on how to administer DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment-Short) course to patients. They will administer the drugs to patients in their locality,” said Hazarika.
“There are several churches under the CBCI and this will help us to administer the DOTS course to the patients as it is not possible for the district officers to visit the remote areas every now and then,” she added.
“We have written to the Assam government to set up sputum collection centres in consultation with the CBCI at selected locations. This would help poor patients in remote villages who cannot come to the existing sputum collection centres,” she said.
