Ranchi: To ensure 100% compliance of medicines and to maintain the monitoring of real-time drugs among tuberculosis (TB) patients with drug resistance, the state health department works with USAID has launched a reminder box and reminder of the monitor (MERM) for the first time in the country this.
About 200 MERMA boxes have been provided to declare TB cells for distribution among TB patients so that they do not miss in their respective doses and their supervision can be done in real time.
Country TB heads, Dr.
Ranjit Prasad, said, “The box has been equipped with a micro chip and has cellular connectivity and drugs have been placed according to their schedule in the box in five different slots.
After a patient takes his first dose, green light buzzing In it and the same thing is communicated to the TB portal which confirms the consumption of the patient’s dosage.
“He added that if a patient did not open a drug box, according to the schedule, the alarm would be bip inside the box as a reminder to the patient and the warning will begin on the portal If the patient does not take medicine.
“As soon as treatment, the supervisor will receive a warning on the portal if a patient misses the medicine.
He will contact the patient and will ask him to take medicine as continuing treatment according to a very vital schedule to remove TB that is resistant to drugs,” said Dr.
Prasad.
Asked how Merma’s box would be useful in fighting against TB, Dr.
Prasad said that it would ease the burden of an important treatment support program in caring for patients.
“Real-time data will help us in tracking patient treatment and maintenance support programs will have better information about the treatment of patients and their patterns.” Asked about the number of TB patients at this time at Jharkhand, a senior official from the National Health Mission (NHM) said that there were more than 41,000 TB patients, more than 27,000 were being treated at a government-managed hospital while more than 14,000 patients were received personally home sick.
According to NHM officials, more than 200 drug resistant TB patients present in the state.