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Ensuring TB Services During Major Floods – Kerala, India, August 2018

Part of: Floods collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2020

Rajeev Sadanandan ,
Sarita RL ,
Sunilkumar Mrithunjayan ,
Mathew J. Valamparambil ,
Shibu Balakrishnan  and
Rakesh P. Suseela Open the ORCID record for Rakesh P. Suseela [Opens in a new window]
Rajeev Sadanandan
Affiliation:
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Kerala, Kerala, India
Sarita RL
Affiliation:
Directorate of Health Services, Kerala, India
Sunilkumar Mrithunjayan
Affiliation:
State TB Cell, Kerala, India
Mathew J. Valamparambil
Affiliation:
State TB Cell, Kerala, India
Shibu Balakrishnan
Affiliation:
WHO RNTCP Technical Support Network, State TB Cell, Kerala, India
Rakesh P. Suseela*
Affiliation:
WHO RNTCP Technical Support Network, State TB Cell, Kerala, India
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Rakesh P. Suseela, WHO RNTCP Technical Support Network, State TB Cell, Opp General Hospital, Red Cross Road, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India (e-mail: rakeshrenjini@gmail.com)
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Abstract

Ensuring the successful treatment of tuberculosis (TB) is an essential public health responsibility of national TB programs. This case study describes how the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Kerala state, successfully prevented the disruptions in TB treatment when an unprecedented massive flood, declared as “a calamity of severe nature,” completely disrupted normal operations in the state during August 2018. Unanticipated floods led to the displacement and relocation of more than 1.5 million citizens. The state has ensured continuity of TB treatment for all notified drug sensitive and drug-resistant TB patients (9608 and 434, respectively), including those who were displaced and relocated. A real-time web-enabled, case-based patient management information system has helped preserve the entire patient information, available at multiple levels. Routine strength of the program, including good rapport with patients, frontline multipurpose health workers and treatment supporters, high literacy rate of general population, and well-integrated primary health care system delivering TB services, enabled ensuring continuity of care during the disaster situation. The success of the post-flood TB control measures in Kerala affirms the importance of maintaining an integrated and strong TB control component with general health system ownership.

Keywords

disaster preparednesshealth systemnatural disasterstuberculosis treatment
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 155 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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