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Hospitalization facility not available for serious TB patients in Karnal civil hospital

Karnal: Tuberculosis (TB) patients are facing problem in Karnal district in the absence of a TB ward at the civil hospital. Though OPD facility is available, serious TB patients are being referred to other health centres due to non-availability of a dedicated ward to treat them in the hospital.

Due to the lack of advanced treatment facility in Karnal, the number of patients suffering from TB is going up in the district.

Over 2,200 cases have been reported at the civil hospital for diagnosis and treatment till June. Sources said the number of patients might reach 4,500 by the year-end.

As many as 2,735 TB cases in the civil hospital and 585 in the private hospitals were reported in 2018 in the district.

Sources said there was a special TB hospital at the civil hospital, but its building was razed three years ago. Land belonging to civil hospital has been handed over to the Government Kalpana Chawla Memorial Medical College. “Since then the hospitalization facility is not available for serious TB patients in Karnal. They are being referred to Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh and Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak,” said sources.

“The authorities concerned have not taken note of this problem so far. The problem of the absence of a TB hospital has been persisted for the last three years,” sources said.

When contacted, Karnal deputy civil surgeon (TB) Simmi Kapoor said: “Efforts are being made for a TB ward at the civil hospital. In the absence of the hospitalization facility, we refer serious patients to Rohtak or Delhi. We are also raising awareness about the disease among people. More patients are approaching the health department and new cases are coming to light.”

She said TB is curable, but it should be detected at an early stage. “Many patients leave treatment midway, due to which resistance develops for the first line of drugs. We urge the patients not to leave their treatment midway even if they feel better and are under the impression that they have overcome the disease at the initial stage,” she said.

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