The Indian Medical Association has signed a five-year agreement with the government's Central Tuberculosis Division to work together to expand the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program across the country, L.S. Chavan, deputy director general of the TB division, said recently, the Indian Express reports.
The agreement calls for 50,000 doctors to offer DOTS treatment during the next five years in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, as well as in the territory of Chandigarh, according to the Express.In addition, the TB division is scheduled to receive a grant from the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for 180 million rupees, or about $4 million. The cooperation between IMA and the TB division aims to unite public and private health care providers, R.V. Asokan, IMA's national coordinator for TB, said.
Although previous attempts between 1999 and 2002 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to increase cooperation between nongovernmental organizations and private practitioners were not successful, current efforts from IMA to promote the TB control program demonstrate a "renewed vigor," according to the Express.
Source-Kaiser Family Foundation
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