Friday 24 July 2015

First of its kind e-meet on Tuberculosis held between 1000 IMA doctors from across 28 of its State branches and the Association leadership

First of its kind e-meet on Tuberculosis held between 1000 IMA doctors from across 28 of its State branches and the Association leadership

The interactive webcast was an initiative under IMA Digital, a program in line with the Prime Minister’s Digital India initaitve

New Delhi, July 23 2015: Bridging the vast geographical gap that exists in our country, the Indian Medical Association has launched several digital initiatives aimed at more efficient implementation of its programs. As a part of this, a first of its kind e-meet was held between 2-3pm today which connected over 100 doctor members of IMA from across States with the leadership on the subject, “Why notifying tuberculosis cases was important”.  The overall aim of the Indian Medical Association is to use the digital medium to amplify important healthcare messages to both its 2.5-lakh doctor members and to the public at large.

Interacting with over 1000 IMA doctors from across the country, Padma Shri Awardee, Dr A Marthanda Pilliai, National President, IMA and Padma Shri Awardee, Dr KK Aggarwal, Honorary Secretary General, IMA in a joint statement said, “In May, 2012 the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare declared Tuberculosis as a notifiable disease. Most Municipal Corporation Acts also include Tuberculosis under the section of dangerous diseases, which mandate reporting. The Medical Council of India in its ethics for doctors clearly states under regulations 5.2 and 7.14 that it is mandatory for all practicing doctors of modern medicine to notify communicable diseases, which includes Tuberculosis. It further states that once Tuberculosis is notifiable disease as per the IMA guidelines, there is no question of confidentiality or privacy.”

There are provisions of Negligent Act likely to spread infection under Indian Penal Code Section 269-270. Section 270 specially applicable to MDR Tuberculosis. If spread of Tuberculosis is allowed to continue  in the society by not taking treatment or not advising treatment it may amount to legal provisions.

The IMA further said that each person who gets exposed to a patient suffering from Tuberculosis must traced and treated. One undetected Tuberculosis patient can spread the disease to 20 additional people on an average and can continue to do so for up to 2-3 years. 10-14% of the total cases where the patient receives only half the treatment can take more serious forms and develop into MDR TB. MDR Tuberculosis is highly contagious and can cause the infection to spread to healthy people at a rapid speed.

In addition to the e-meet, IMA has already created a digital group called Team IMA, which will make daily communication between over over 2000 Central Council Members possible. Since the beginning of this year, over 2 lakh doctor members of the IMA are being sent daily updates on the organization and key health matters through the medium of text messages and emails.

IMA will also be launching a first of its kind Tele Medicine Rural Health Consultation service on 16th August, 2015 where the IMA Dhule Branch will connect with the IMA headquarters through video conferencing.



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