How a community group is supporting Kerala TB patients at no cost to govt

Here's how the Pathanamthitta blueprint holds a solution to India's struggle against drug-resistant TB

For the past five months, 42-year-old Giridharan* has not been able to work. An auto-driver in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) last December and the medicines caused such severe side-effects that he was hospitalised for 13 days in February until his regimen was modified.

The sole breadwinner of his family, Giridharan was referred by his doctors at the Family Health Centre (an upgraded primary health centre) to Treatment Support Group, a programme that originated in Pathanamthitta district in 2012, that provides social support to TB patients, particularly to access all relevant government schemes as