‘Aashwasan’ Campaign under ‘Tribal TB Initiative’

• 27 Aug 2022

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs and TB division of Ministry of Health and Family welfare organized a national conclave on 24th August at the National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI), New Delhi to disseminate the learnings of the 100-day Aashwasan Campaign under ‘Tribal TB Initiative’.

Tribal TB Initiative

• It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Central TB Division, Ministry of Health, supported by USAID as technical partner and Piramal Swasthya as implementing partner.

Aashwasan Campaign

• The Aashwasan Campaign started on 7th January this year 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.

The Initiative

• Under the initiative, door-to-door screening for TB was undertaken covering 68,019 villages.
• Based on verbal screening of 1,03,07,200 persons, 3,82,811 people were identified for Presumptive TB. Of these, 2,79,329 (73%) samples were tested for TB and 9,971 people were found to be positive for TB and put on treatment as per GoI protocols.

Findings

• The data indicates that the tribal communities are more vulnerable to respiratory diseases and TB, compared to other population groups.

Charting Future Course

• With the data which has emerged through the Aashwasan Campaign, Central TB Division will map TB hotspots and use that as the starting point.
• 75 high burden tribal districts have been selected for focused interventions in the coming months.