According to the findings of a study which carried out screening and treatment of Tuberculosis (TB) among the Tibetan refugee kids in schools in Northern India, nearly one in every five of them have the disease. The discovery is a startling to all the researchers and concerned authorities.
The study was led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Wisconsin as a part of the “Zero TB in Tibetan Kids Project” which is locally implemented by the Delek Hospital in Dharamshala, Health and Education Departments of Central Tibetan Administration.
“In a tuberculosis screening and treatment initiative covering the entire population of Tibetan refugee schoolchildren in northern India, a team directed by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Wisconsin says it has found not only a startlingly high prevalence of TB disease and infection, but also a potentially workable strategy to eliminate the disease in a large, high-risk group.” said the report in Newswise on Wednesday.
“Our innovative initiative includes population-level implementation of TB preventive therapy as part of a multipronged strategy to control and eliminate TB in an at-risk population in India,” says lead study author Kunchok Dorjee, Ph.D., M.B.B.S. Dorjee is a research associate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Zero TB in Tibetan Kids project.
“With the support of local leadership and community mobilization, including support from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we have demonstrated that TB control can be achieved on a population level. The findings provide a benchmark to measure and compare progress toward elimination in the future.” added the lead researcher.
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