Puducherry Becomes First State to Integrate TB Screening in Family Adoption Programme

Puducherry has made a pioneering move in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) by becoming the first Union Territory in India to integrate TB screening as part of the Family Adoption Programme. This innovative approach is being carried out through collaboration between medical colleges, students, and the local health department.

What Is the Family Adoption Programme?

The Family Adoption Programme is a National Medical Commission-mandated initiative where medical students adopt 3 to 5 families as part of their community outreach and follow up with them over a period of three years.

In Puducherry, this programme has taken a health-centric turn. When students adopt a family, they now screen all family members for tuberculosis as a part of routine health monitoring.

Direct Involvement of Medical Students

According to Dr. Kavita Vasudevan, Head of Community Medicine at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) in Puducherry, if any family member is found to have TB symptoms, students assist in both the diagnosis and treatment process. This proactive model is improving early detection rates and connecting vulnerable individuals to healthcare services more efficiently.

Verbal Autopsy to Understand TB Mortality

Another innovation introduced in Puducherry is the use of Verbal Autopsy to investigate TB-related deaths.

This method involves trained doctors speaking with the family members of deceased TB patients to understand:

Patient-related factors such as delay in seeking treatment
Systemic issues like delayed diagnosis or lack of access to care

Dr. Vasudevan explained that verbal autopsies are being conducted for 160 cases, and early findings show a high number of deaths occurring after 14 days of diagnosis. This delay highlights the urgent need to promote early healthcare-seeking behaviour.

The Role of Medical Colleges in TB Elimination

Puducherry has nine medical colleges, all of which are actively contributing to the Union Territory’s mission to eliminate TB. These colleges account for 45% of TB notifications and play a key role in Active Case Finding (ACF) drives.

According to senior UT health officials, the medical colleges support the cause by:

Offering diagnostic facilities
Reserving dedicated TB treatment beds
Conducting IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) activities
Extending community-level healthcare support

Advanced Diagnostic Tools and Mapping of High-Risk Populations

The government, in coordination with the medical colleges and the State TB Cell, has initiated a drive to identify and map vulnerable populations as moderate or high risk. These individuals are tested using:

AI-enabled handheld chest X-rays
NAAT (Nucleic Acid Amplification Test) molecular diagnostics

Patients with co-morbidities or other risk factors are continuously followed up in future case-finding campaigns.

About the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) in Puducherry

The NTEP has been in effect in Puducherry since February 20, 2004, under the Department of Health & Family Welfare Services and the National Health Mission. Key features of the programme include:

A single NTEP district covering 13.92 lakh people
7 TB Units
28 TB Diagnostic Centres
One Intermediate Reference Laboratory (IRL) at the Government Hospital for Chest Diseases, equipped with culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) capabilities