Patients at OPD block exposed to tuberculosis at Civil Hospital

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 24

Showing scant regard to the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) that is aimed at curbing TB at the national level, more than 600 patients visiting the Civil Hospital are exposed to the highly contagious disease as TB patients are being examined near the general OPD (outpatient department) unit these days.

Even as there is a full-fledged TB hospital situated on the premises of the Civil Hospital, TB patients are being examined at the OPD block.

The patients visiting the psychiatry unit at the Civil Hospital are most vulnerable to TB as it is barely situated three meters from where the TB clinic is functioning.

The patients visiting the general OPD unit, X-ray, orthopaedic and ultrasound units are also exposed to the disease.

The matter was highlighted by The Tribune in the first week of March this year, but the authorities have not ensured any action in the matter.

Sources in the Health Department said despite the fact that there was a designated TB hospital situated barely 50 mt away, the ill-practice of examining TB patients at the OPD block is continuing unabated with the connivance of officials and their tacit approval was putting the health of thousands at risk.

And not just patients, but the attendants accompanying them are also vulnerable to the infectious disease, they said.

As per sources the way such ill-practices are flourishing without any check, curbing TB menace in the district or state would be a distant dream. The practice has been on for more than six months, without any intervention by the authorities.

A senior official at the government hospital, requesting anonymity, said, “Patients at the general OPD are indeed exposed to the highly contagious TB infection. We have asked the doctor concerned to shift to the TB clinic, but the latter continues to examine patients from the OPD block.”

Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Satish Goyal said, “If there are suspected TB cases then their treatment is done at the TB hospital. However, we will check if confirmed cases of TB are being followed-up at the clinic.”

How TB spreads

When a person with TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, sings or talks, droplets containing the bacteria are released into the air and people contract the disease by breathing in TB bacteria.