To create awareness about TB, a social media campaign will be launched soon, which will be supported by USAID and implemented by Population Services International (PSI), India, a leading NGO engaged in public health in partnership with Improving Health Behaviour Programme, FHI 360. The campaign will target allopathic doctors in the private sector, to raise awareness of TB notification in India and to provide a convenient platform for allopathic doctors to register with the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP’s) national notification system called ‘Nikshay’ which can be accessed at http://nikshay.gov.in
Pritpal Marjara, Managing Director, PSI, India said, “By June 2014, India will have 243 million Internet users, second only to China. We must leverage the power of social media channels to raise awareness of TB notification and ensure a TB test, treatment and cure for all.”
The social media campaign has two platforms, a facebook page and a microsite. The facebook page provides an opportunity for allopathic doctors to sign a pledge supporting TB Notification and to ‘like’ and share the page with professional friends and colleagues. The microsite provides in-depth information about TB in India and an opportunity for doctors to easily register their details, so that the District TB Officials can contact them and register them on Nikshay.
According to PSI, this initiative will play a big role in realising Central TB Division’s (CTD’s) vision of zero deaths from TB and will provide each and every TB patient with to access free tests, free medicines and good quality care,to ensure a complete cure.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai
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