Youth 'JOSH' squads to take TB awareness door to door in Thane district

Thane: The Thane Zilla Parishad has launched 'JOSH', short for Joint Squad for Health, to find tuberculosis cases earlier and get patients on treatment sooner. The drive supports the Centre's TB Mukt Bharat campaign and puts young volunteers at its centre.

Each block and ward will have a ten-member squad made up of five MY Bharat volunteers and five National Cadet Corps cadets. Class-I nodal officers will plan and coordinate their work.

Squad members will visit homes and villages to explain the symptoms of TB, how infection can be prevented, which tests are available and why treatment must be completed. They will urge people with symptoms to get tested, offer counselling and emotional support to patients on treatment, and help them get support through Nikshay Mitras. They will also help the health department connect suspected patients with health centres.

A JOSH mobile app will record each squad's daily work so the campaign can be reviewed. Zilla Parishad chief executive officer Ranjit Yadav said public participation was decisive in eliminating TB, and district health officer Dr Gangadhar Parge and district TB officer Dr Dinesh Sutar appealed to residents to join the drive.

Source: Loksatta