KMC plans study after south Kolkata tuberculosis spike

Kolkata: After detecting a large number of tuberculosis patients in south Kolkata pockets, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has sought help from the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (AIIH & PH) to carry out a study to determine the cause of the spike in cases to chalk out an appropriate response.

Over 430 TB cases have been reported from 12 KMC wards in south Kolkata in the past one year, said a KMC health department source. A majority of the cases were detected in slums, said a civic official.

Some of the areas in the city which have come under the civic body's scanner include Chetla, Alipore, Kidderpore, Metiabruz, Garden Reach, Kalighat-Hazra belt among others. Citing tuberculosis as a potential threat, mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday said efforts were on to combat the threat at all costs.

"Malnutrition among the residents of a slum in the Chetla Haat area has been the major cause of the TB outbreak.We are keeping an eye on the slum and we'll admit serious patients at the KMC-run TB hospital in Boral, in the southern outskirts," said Hakim.

The civic body's health department is reaching out with medical aid to other slums in the 12 TB-affected wards . "Since tuberculosis is a silent killer especially after the pandemic, the threat has increased manifold. We have put maximum stress on the slums where a section of the slum population is testing positive for TB," said a KMC health department official.