A high level meeting was held in Asansol to combat leprosy and tuberculosis in West Burdwan district. The meeting was chaired by S. Ponnambalam, District Magistrate and Collector of West Burdwan district and held in the office of the Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA).

Chief Medical Officer Health (CMOH) of West Burdwan, Dr Yunus Khan, Additional District Magistrate, Sanjay Pal etc were present in the meeting. Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, DM of West Burdwan, S. Ponnambalam has said that there are two monitoring cells of leprosy and tuberculosis diseases in West Burdwan district and he is the chairman of both the monitoring cells. “We have chalked out a strategy to identify new leprosy patients in West Burdwan district and the work will start from 3 September. At present there are over 500 leprosy patients in the district and their treatment is going on in the district hospitals,” he added.

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The CMOH, Dr Yunus Khan, said that in a recent survey out of one lakh population of the district about 100 people were found suffering from tuberculosis. “The health department is unable to trace many tuberculosis patients in the district. To identify them now the health department plans to start door to door surveys throughout the district,’added Dr Khan. The health officials who will conduct the door to door survey from 3 September to identify the leprosy patients will be trained by the district health department. The National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) and the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme are the two programmes that are in place at present to control leprosy and tuberculosis in India. .