Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur announced to open a dental college and trauma centre, besides market and sports complexes with a swimming pool for the students at Dr RP Government Medical College in Tanda.

Health Minister said it while addressing a function of the two-day Zonal Task Force (North) Workshop on Revised National TB Control Programme, where about 150 senior doctors of medical colleges from seven states Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh participated.

Speaking at the workshop, Health Minister said that two to three persons in Himachal Pradesh were dying daily of tuberculosis. Under RNTCP more than one crore patients were treated and 20 lakh were saved. He said at the national level eight out of 10 patients treated under the programme were free of TB as compared to three out of 10 in previous programmes. He said in the hill state 1,79,555 TB patients were treated and cured since 1997.

Thakur also expressed concern over the emergence of the extremely drug resistant TB, which is not responding to the available drugs. He said one Intermediate level Reference Laboratory (IRL) was established at Dharamspur, another was nearing completion at DRPGMC Tanda and advanced laboratory for diagnosis of TB to be set up at IGMC Shimla.

Health Minister released a DRPGMC magazine “Pratibimb” on this occasion. Along with doctors, MLA Baijnath Kishori Lal was also present at the occasion.