RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Sept.2: State health minister Banna Gupta today asked Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya to increase the honorarium of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), popular as Sahiya, and give a special package for the elimination of tuberculosis in the state.
The demand was raised when Gupta got an opportunity to talk to Mandaviya, who was talking to health ministers of all states virtually while starting a programme for detection of cases of tuberculosis and direct benefit transfer of nutritional support to TB patients.
Justifying the demand for honorarium hike, Gupta said the former had worked hard during the corona pandemic and left no stone unturned to help corona patients. On a special package, he said it was required to fight in the same way the state is fighting with Covid-19.
Minister Gupta said the test for TB is done by the IGRA method, which is costly and thus arrangement for the free tests should be done.
The Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) is a blood test used to see whether a person has been infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the bacteria causing TB). The IGRA test works by measuring the body’s immune response to the TB bacteria
Earlier, the state minister informed the union minister that from January to July as many as 1784 cases of TB were detected in Jharkhand, and treatment of patients was started. He said from January to July, the state achieved a target of 75 percent in the field of TB eradication.
