World TB Day

World TB day was observed at the Chettinad Hospital And Research Institute, Chennai, India on 26th March 2013. The day was marked by an interactive session on “TB in Health care workers” and a quiz competition on TB for MBBS students. The chief organizers of the event were Dr.T.PRABHUSHANKAR and Dr.G.MURALI MOHAN REDDY, both Assistant Professors in Community Medicine and Dr.SARASWATI, Associate Professor in Microbiology under the guidance of the Dean of the institute.

In pursuance of the slogan “I am stopping TB”, it was decided to focus on the theme “TB in health care workers – Are we safe?” in our institute. As a part of it, a facility level assessment survey was conducted in the various departments of the hospital using standard guidelines recommended by Government of India for airborne infection control in a health care facility. The details of the survey were presented to the members participating in the session. The group consisted of The Dean, Head of the Departments, faculty and supportive staff from relevant departments (Pulmonology, Internal medicine, Community medicine, Microbiology Etc). All the members appreciated the infrastructure, equipment and protocols already in place. The members were asked to express their opinion on new interventions that could be considered, difficulties in their implementation and ways of overcoming them. The deliberations of the session were submitted to the institute management along with a set of recommendations.

An intracollegiate quiz competition on TB named “MANTOUX” was also conducted for MBBS students on the same day. The quiz had a caption ‘An ultimate test of your TB exposure’. This was meant to convey the message as to what a Mantoux test result actually infers. A total of 20 teams had enrolled, out of which 5 teams were selected for the finale by a written screening test the earlier day. The rounds in the final were on history, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, trivia and lastly an assorted rapid fire round The teams also had to name themselves with a name related to TB control. The first place was won by a team named ‘KOCH’S AVENGERS’ comprising of Sindhu, Bharani, Guruparan and Prithviraj, all MBBS students at the institute. The teams ‘TB WARRIORS’ and ‘THE CLUELESS BACILLI’ bagged the second and third prizes respectively.