Rajahmundry, March 1: Tuberculosis (TB) shows a marginal decline in East Godavari, following intense health care for patients to avoid recurrence, and increased awareness among people to opt for medical intervention soon after finding symptoms of the infection.

Contrary to the guidelines for the control of tuberculosis by the World Health Organisation in relation to air travel, a recent study published in the medical journal, The Lancet, has reported there is little risk of tuberculosis transmission through air travel.

Sohini Das & Maulik Pathak / Ahmedabad January 27, 2010, 0:58 IST

As the country

RASHME SEHGAL

The department of biotechnology is moving at a rapid pace to develop new vaccines to combat tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, rabies, leprosy, HIV AIDS and cancer.

NEW DELHI: Workers of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) who are involved in reproductive health care of women and children in the rural areas will now be trained for the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis eradication programme in North-East Delhi.

IN THE old days, the job of eradicating disease fell to governments and inter-governmental bodies. Then charities, often led by celebrities or entrepreneurs, joined in. Finally, in the Western world at least, governments accepted the need to pool their efforts with those of private donors, big and small. The effort still seems unequal to the task.

DOTS, or directly observed treatment, in which the patient is made to take medication right in front of a doctor or health worker, is recommended by the WHO as the most effective strategy against TB. India boasts of the largest coverage under this free programme, adding one lakh patients to it every month.