This is the REACH Blog Team saying a big hi to all of you. Well, we thought of just reminding you again that World TB Day is just round the corner – March 24th.
Hoping that most of you reading this blog are well informed about TB, we would like to trouble you a bit to ask yourselves what you would be doing this world TB Day. Whether it’s just going to be another day in your life or whether you would take a bit of an effort at the minimum, to speak about the disease to someone.
Forecasting things more positively, we hope that you would go one step ahead and get involved in spreading the message on a larger level coz we are sure you agree with us that we owe generations to come – A TB FREE PLANET.
We thought we would start of today by looking into what DOCTORS can do on World TB Day to help change the situation.
Doctors can put up posters in their clinics and hospitals exhibiting TB facts and the significance of World TB Day. On receptions pamphlets on TB can be stacked for people walking in to pick up. In waiting rooms where TV’s are used to keep patients occupied during the wait, documentaries, short films or ads on TB can be screened for patients to view.
Doc’s can team up with their colleagues, get innovative and arrange for platforms to talk about the issue of TB and spread the message. Doctors can also oblige to talk about the disease to groups who arrange for TB talks on the day.
Apart from the occasion of World TB Day, doctors also have an important role to play in their daily routines to wipe of TB from our globe.
The first thing a doc should do is to ensure that all patients having a cough for more than two weeks do a sputum test. Once TB is confirmed the patient should be given the confidence that TB is curable and the needed support and encouragement to complete the full course of treatment. Doctors should take time with each patient and create an atmosphere of warmth which goes a long way in helping a patient from sickness to cure
Doctors must also ensure that the patient completes the full course of TB treatment, DOTS or non DOTS.
Doctors can Speak UP for DOTS and spread the message that this is the treatment strategy recommended by the WHO for Tuberculosis.
He or she can also refer patients to government centers for free diagnosis and treatment.
So docs we do hope that you would gear up for World TB Day and make the best use of the occasion.
For further queries or assistance you can contact us at Ph: 28610332, 65211047 or mail us at reach_us@vsnl.net.
Watch out for the upcoming blog on”What Lab Technicians can do for World Tb Day”
Anne Theresa Suresh Kumar
REACH Blog Team