Telangana Medical Education Director Dr Ramesh Reddy on Tuesday said the medical colleges have a crucial role to play in TB control and can contribute immensely in identifying the TB symptomatic at the earliest to cut the transmission of the disease.

Speaking at the two-day Zonal Task Force Workshop (South-I) on “Effective involvement of Medical Colleges in the TB Control “ held at Kamineni Academy of Medical Sciences and Research, here Dr. Ramesh said that the medical colleges should take a lead role in operational research considering their expertise.

Dr. Raghuram Rao, Addl. Deputy Director General (TB), Central TB Division, New Delhi said the full potential for contribution by the medical colleges was yet to be fully realized. “Proactive involvement by the medical colleges and rapid adoption of the new initiatives of TB control program is the way forward”, he said.

Dr. Behara, Chairman, National Task Force in his address appreciated the role of medical colleges in TB control and said the National Task Force was one of the highest technical body in the country and is playing a critical role in giving a proper direction to the TB control program. He said with around 480 medical colleges country- wide can bring both quantitative and qualitative improvement to the program.

In his key note address Dr. Subhakar, Chairman, Zonal Task Force (South – I) said the medical colleges have a huge potential in identifying the hidden TB cases. Universal access to the TB control was possible only by the active involvement of medical colleges, he said. Dr. Surya Prakash, Joint Director (TB) requested the medical colleges to take a lead role in implementation of the newer technical and operational guidelines for the TB control programme. Medical college representatives from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have attended the workshop