GUWAHATI, March 27 � Around 17 per cent of tea garden labourers in Assam are suffering from tuberculosis and at least one Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course (DOT) Centre will be established in each tea garden of the State as part of the effort to curb TB.
The project is being taken up under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Health Minister Nazrul Islam said in the Legislative Assembly today.�
Replying to a query by AGP MLA Keshab Mahanta during Zero Hour, the Minister said that non-completion of the full course of medicine by the patients was one of the major reasons for high prevalence of TB in the tea gardens.
�TB is a contagious disease. Medicines have to be taken for the duration of entire six months. But usually, tea garden labourers stop it after they become well in 2-3 months. So they are not fully cured and after some times, they suffer again,� Islam said.
He added the death rate due to TB has come down from 11 per cent to 4 per cent in recent years.
