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Cadila Pharmaceuticals initiates awareness campaigns to observe 'World TB Day'

Just Earth News 23 Mar 2016, 04:18 pm Print

Cadila Pharmaceuticals initiates awareness campaigns to observe 'World TB Day'
New Delhi, Mar 23 (IBNS): Cadila Pharmaceuticals Limited, one of India's largest privately held pharmaceuticals companies, is planning various activities across India to raise awareness about Tuberculosis on World TB Day, that will be observed on Thursday.

The awareness campaign will engage medical professionals, patients and youth through awareness rallies, in-clinic activities, skits/street plays which will highlight the importance of early diagnosis, regular dosage, completion of treatment and patient compliance to help control the disease.

As part of the campaign, a series of activities are being executed starting from March 21 till March 27. The campaign includes Patient Awareness Programs, Free TB Diagnosis, awareness talks on radio in 35 cities, TB awareness rallies in 10 cities. Besides, TB awareness films will be shown at 220 locations across the country for highlight the dos and don’ts of the deadly disease.   

Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, which affects the lungs most commonly. It is a highly contagious bacterial infection that can spread quickly if not caught, isolated and treated early.  A TB patient can infect through breathing, coughing, talking, singing, sneezing etc.

TB continues to be the No. 1 infectious disease in India, and one of the greatest public health challenges, killing 1 person every 2 minutes. 
 
According to the World Health Organisation Report 2015, India is the highest TB burden country. Globally, 9.6 million people developed active TB in 2014, out of which 1.5 million died. As many as 2.5 million people were living with active TB in India in 2014. Over 70,000 were cases related to multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). This year the theme World TB day is ‘Find TB. Treat TB. Working together to eliminate TB’.

Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is amongst the few companies worldwide that has continued to invest in research and development and is committed to Government of India’s ‘TB-Mission 2020’ which seeks to eradicate Tuberculosis from the country. This is also in line with World Health Organization’s (WHO) ambitious new 20-year (2016-2035) ‘End TB Strategy’, that envisions a world free of TB with zero deaths, disease and suffering. Cadila Pharmaceuticals, driven by its vision of providing world-class, yet affordable medicines, had launched Risorine, the world’s first anti-tubercular drug with boosted Rifampicin, in the year 2009. Risorine uses Piperine which act as a bio enhancer in boosting the efficacy of Rifampicin and helps in improving patient compliance by lowering side effects.  The drug has so far, been successfully administered to more than 1 Lakh TB patients.

Cadila Pharmaceuticals was one of the first companies to introduce Mycobutol and P-Zide in India and has been serving the Indian medical fraternity for over 30 years with a complete range of Anti-TB drugs.