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Thrust on care of TB-infected HIV patients Stress on coordinated effort to fight TB Volunteers needed for anti-TB campaign

Workshops

1. Workshop at Bangalore
( ‘TB bigger killer than a tsunami’ - But proper and timely treatment can cure the disease) -

Actor Suhasini Mani Ratnam addressing an awareness workshop on tuberculosis and health reporting for Mount Carmel College students in Bangalore was held on 20th November 2009

Speaking at a workshop on TB awareness and health reporting for students of Mount Carmel College organised by REACH (Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health), a Chennai-based organisation, Ms. Suhasini, who herself had the condition in her childhood, said there was a misconception that TB was a disease of the past. “All of us should try to create awareness about this disease and propagate the message that it can be (cured) if the person is treated on time,” she said.

On health reporting, she advised students to listen objectively and report sensitively. “You as journalists have a great responsibility towards society. Try to clear misconceptions among people and create awareness about social issues. But do not sensationalise news,” she told them.

Addressing students, Nalini Krishnan, Founder-Member and Director (Projects) of REACH, said the organisation had launched an advocacy programme for control of TB, in association with the Tuberculosis Research Centre and the Indian Council of Medical Research. “We want to sensitise budding journalists on health reporting and guide them on creating awareness among the people about critical public health issues,” Dr. Krishnan said.

Free drugs

“The reasons for choosing to fight TB were many. The World Health Organisation has declared it a global emergency and India accounts for a third of the global TB burden, and it is a bigger killer than AIDS in the country,” she pointed out. “Our aim is to tell people that TB is curable, and drugs are available for patients free through the Revised National TB Control Programme. REACH has also devised DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Courses), a strategy to ensure that patients complete the entire course of medication. Incomplete or poorly supervised treatment is worse than no treatment at all, because it results in drug resistance,” Dr. Krishnan said.

Parvathi Menon, Chief of Bureau, The Hindu, Bangalore, cautioned the students not to get carried away by tall claims made of cures, especially by the private medical sector.

2. Workshop at Chennai

Media for TB workshop was held on 25th February 2009 at Tuberculosis Research Center, Chetput, Chennai.

The facilitators for the program included Dr. V. Kumarasami, Dr. M.S. Jawahar, Dr. Aleyamma Thomas, Dr. Beena Thomas from Tuberculosis Research Centre, Dr. P.R. Narayanan (former Director, TRC ) Dr.Arjun Rajagopal (Chief of Medical Staff, SMF), Dr. Nalini Krishnan (Director Projects REACH) , Dr.Ramya Ananthakrishnan (REACH). Ms. Sunita Prasad from Lilly MDR-TB partnership was also present. Participants to the workshop included representatives from print media and radio stations. Group discussions were held with the participants.

The media4tb website was launched on this occasion. The website caters exclusively to the media for expressing their ideas, views, human interest stores etc on TB. The participants were encouraged to actively contribute to the website, especially in the blog section.

An advocacy kit containing the following materials was handed over to the participants and their purpose explained.

3. Workshop at Hyderabad

The media for TB workshop was held at Hotel Green Park on 6th march 2009. Participants to the workshop included representatives from print media, television and radio stations. Dr.Nalini Krishnan started off the session by explaining the reason for conducting this program, about the partners involved in the initiative, how media coud participate in this campaign etc.

Dr.Ramya Ananthakrishnan presented on How TB information has been portrayed in the media – a travel through time and used this presentation for explaining the fundamental myths and facts about tuberculosis. Advocacy kit was explained and the website www.media4tb.org was presented to them.

Mr.Mike Mandelbaum , Chief Executive Officer, TB Alert spoke in detail about the problem of TB in India, how creating advocacy is of paramount importance for the success of the TB control program etc.

The media personalities participated in the program very actively and clarified several TB related doubts with the facilitators of the program. The participants filled up the response form which contains the ways n which they could participate in the Media for TB initiative.