N-TB, an app for TB patients, was launched on March 24, World Tuberculosis Day. The app was developed by Dr. Anurag Bhargava, a professor of Yenepoya University, Mangaluru.
The app is specially designed for TB patients to provide them nutritional information. N- TB asks for specific details such as the height and weight of a person and then gives information about their health status based on the calculated BMI.
Further, it gives information about what diet the person should take, according to their BMI.
Speaking to the Deccan Herald, Dr Bhargava said, "Certain aspects for the application such as analysing nutrition component, counselling are to be improvised."
The application has reportedly been endorsed by Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) and World Health Organisation (WHO). It was one of the new initiatives unveiled by the Prime Minister during the Delhi End TB Summit on March 13, 2018.
While the Center for Nutrition Studies, Yenepoya University provided the content for the app, it was developed with technical support from McGill International TB Centre, Montreal, reports The Hindu Business Line.
Supposedly based on the Guidance Document on nutritional care and support for TB patients in India, Dr Bhargava says that he hopes medical professionals and nurses in private hospitals will use the app to treat their patients.
In India, over 1300 people die of TB every day. India bears the world’s highest burden of TB, with approximately a quarter of all TB cases in the world. In 2015, close to five lakh people died of TB in India and every year, an estimated 1.3 lakh people are affected by drug-resistant TB (TB India Report 2017).