Tuberculosis Occupational Risks in Field-based Health Care Workers in India

Health care workers are the most valuable resource in biomedical research and the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the years 2006 to 2015 as the “The decade of the human resources for health”. The target of tuberculosis (TB) elimination globally is 2030, but India has proposed to eliminate it by 2025. TB research and development is essential to achieve the global TB targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals and the End TB Strategy. One of the pillars proposed by WHO for END TB strategy is intensified research and innovation.¹ Priorities for TB research and development include vaccines to lower the risk of infection, a vaccine or new drug treatment to reduce the risk of TB disease in already latently infected, rapid diagnostics for use at the point of care and simpler and shorter drug regimens for treating TB disease. India is working hard towards intensifying research in TB with a recent surge in field-based research for the discovery and development of newer tools and their implementation; interventions and to develop strategies. Treatment for TB is domiciliary and community-based interventions are mandatory for the prevention and care. Field-based health workers (FHW) including Medical Social Workers, Nurses, RNTCP workers and DOTS providers play key role in the treatment for tuberculosis, enhancing active case finding and intensifying research and innovation. The risk that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be transmitted from patients with active tuberculosis (TB) to other patients and healthcare workers has been recognized for many years.² It is high-time that proper safety measures are framed to prevent and support FHW working in tuberculosis. The level of risk varies by setting, occupation, patient population and effectiveness of TB infection control measures. If average community based annual risk of infection in India is about 1.5%, healthcare workers have additional 3.5% risk, which may be attributable to nosocomial exposure.³ Read more....