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Showing posts from January, 2019

Strong association between heavy alcohol use/alcohol use disorders (AUD) and TB...

With India having the largest number of   Tuberculosis  patients in the world, we definitely encounter high proportion of alcohol and drug users with TB (approx. 2 in 10 alcohol and drug users are diagnosed with TB). At present India does'nt have any screening mechanisms in place to identify asymptomatic TB patients at the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres but data is collected on the basis of self reporting and screening of symptomatic patients. Any patient at the drug /alcohol rehabilitation centre showing symptoms of TB is referred for TB testing and if identified as TB positive these patients are sent for TB treatment but are never usually followed up or retained for alcohol de-addiction treatment. The patients are sent back home and don't continue their stay at the center potentially due to lack of infection control facilities at the rehabilitation centre. Even recently at the community conversation for NCD voices on Our Views, Our Voices" conducted by Nada ...