Department is running Revised National Tuberculosis Control Project (RNTCP) with the help of staffs provided by STO, Delhi. It is coordinating with Department of TB & Respiratory Diseases in provision of DOTS to all categories of TB patients and also establishing a linkage to the RNTCP staff for continuation of treatment at the patient’s doorsteps.

Besides this, the department is involved in facilitating the RNTCP modular training of MOs, MOTCs, DTOs and STOs from different parts of the country on a continuous basis. Department is also involved in regular teaching activities of post graduate students both from within and outside the Institute. Department is also involved in regular RNTCP teaching programme for nursing staff of the Institute and for nursing students from other Institutes. The faculties of the department have delivered guest lectures and have attended various conferences at both national and international level. The department also has organized various workshops on involvement of NGO and PPs in DOTS and DOTS-Plus, Department is also involved in developing teaching modules for nurses for DOT-Plus.

The LRS Institute of TB & Respiratory Diseases has been entrusted the responsibility by the Delhi Govt. of undertaking Tuberculosis Control activity in a defined geographical area in the southern part of Delhi covering a population about 1.00 million. The domiciliary treatment services were earlier being offered to these Area patients from the OPD of the institute. With the introduction of the Revised Strategy for Tuberculosis Control (RNTCP) by the Government of India the tuberculosis control services provided by the institute have been decentralized through DOT-cum-Microscopy centres established under the RNTCP in the area covered by the institute. At places sub-centres (DOT-Centres) have also been started with NGO assistance to further bring the services closer to the patients and community. The list of the DOT-cum-Microscopy Centre is as under:-

In addition to the above centres, the department is collaborating with the following NGOs and Private Practitioners.

Name of NGOs

Contact Person	Phone No.	Phone No.
St. Marry, Aaya Nagar	Dr. Joseph	011-55653587011-55653587, 20913530
Vyakti Vikas Kendra India	Dr. Sunita Khera	98105947539810594753
Asha Community Health & Devlopment	Ms. Rani	011-26716409011-26716409, 26179844
Rotary Club of Delhi South	Dr. B.S Khurana	98681030289868103028
Rotary Club of Delhi Sainik Farm	Dr. P.C Bansal	93122127369312212736

The RNTCP is implemented by the DTO who is assisted by Medical Officer -TB Control (MOTC). There are two tuberculosis units each under one MOTC who is assisted by Senior Treatment Supervisor (STS), Senior TB Laboratory Supervisor (STLS), five Laboratory Technicians and five TB Health Visitors. The department has also a Data Entry Operator. Most of the staff working in the department in on contract basis.

The RNTCP has consistently achieved the National targets of cure rate above 85% and case detection above 70% for the past several years. The Institute is also implementing the DOTS Plus strategy for programmatic drug resistant cases through this department.

Department has been involved in many publications in international and national journals and is regularly generating data of RNTCP for discussion in monthly statistical meetings.

RNTCP

Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme was implemented in a phased manner and the full fledged programme began in 1997. The programme uses the DOTS strategy with the objective to achieve and maintain at least 85% cure rate of new sputum smear positive and detection of at least 70% of such cases. Entire country was covered under RNTCP in March 2006.

From when LRS was part of it?

The south zone district of Delhi was offered to this institute to implement the national programme.

Currently LRS-RNTCP is looking after the 1 million population of land area starting from Ber Sarai to Jaunapur and from Khanpur to Sangam Vihar. This area was divided into two tuberculosis units. There are 11 designated microscopy centers and 17 DOT Centers including NGO’s and PP’s.

RNTCP ACTIVITIES:

Eleven microscopy centers are being operationalised with the help of qualified and trained Laboratory Technician in 1 million population of South Zone of Delhi. All the chests symptomatic undergo screening for TB by smear microscopy.

A DOT provider is available in all 17 DOT centers of our area whose functions include:-

• Initial home verification of TB diagnosed patients and provision of IEC activities to family members.
• Initiation of DOTS as per RNTCP guidelines.
• Establishing the linkage by visiting the Institute on every Friday for timely enrolment of the diagnosed and referred patients to their respective DOT area.
• Continuation of DOTS to patients after discharge from the Institute.
• Sending case and contacts to LRS Institute for various ongoing research projects.
• Helping the trainees during the field visits at DOT/MC Centres during their RNTCP modular trainings.

IEC activities are done at each DOT centre on quarterly basis by 1st level of supervision. A collaboration has been done with Department of Community Medicine of St.Stephen hospital for training of DOT-provider regarding IEC activities at DOT Centre.

A collaboration has been done with NGOs and PPs. Among the NGOs, the St. Marry’s Medical Centre is one of the well known organization working in tuberculosis. The ESI at Tigri and Mehrauli patients are benefiting from DOT at ESI Centers

A collaboration has been done with other organizations like Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University) for research work of M.Sc and Ph.D students.

LRS-RNTCP achieved the cure rate of 89% and the sputum conversion rate of smear positive patients of 90% during the year (table-23). This achievement resulted due to the joint efforts of LRS, NGOs, PPs and STO Delhi.

 LRS-RNTCP Outcome Data

DOTS was given to a total number of 3538 patients that included 2749 of Category-I, 789 of Category-II.