Centre identifies 75 tribal districts for focused TB interventions

Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TB division of Ministry of Health and Family welfare organized a national conclave recently to disseminate the learnings of the 100-day Aashwasan Campaign under ‘Tribal TB Initiative’.

Tribal TB Initiative

• Tribal TB Initiative is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Central TB Division, Ministry of Health.
• It is supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as technical partner and Piramal Swasthya as implementing partner.

Aashwasan Campaign

• The Aashwasan Campaign started in January, 2022 for active case finding for TB in 174 tribal districts of India, under the ambit of the Tribal TB Initiative.
• It was flagged off in Nandurbar District, Maharashtra.
• Under the initiative, door-to-door screening for TB was undertaken covering 68,019 villages. 

75 tribal districts for focused TB interventions:

To mark 75 years’ of India’s Independence, 75 high burden tribal districts have been selected for focused interventions in the coming months.

A three-pronged strategy for the 75 Districts was presented, to be centered on:

• Generating demand for TB services through continued engaged with community influencers who have been mapped during this process for community mobilization, increasing awareness on TB, symptoms, spread and treatment processes, and addressing stigma and fear associated with TB.
• Improving the delivery of TB services by enhancing the TB testing and diagnosis infrastructure, leveraging PIPs and other sources of funding to address implementation gaps and provision of customized solutioning
• Decreasing the risk of transmission and decreasing the pool of infections through active case finding campaigns.