KUPWARA, Nov 18: The case detection rate of different types of tuberculosis (TB) has increased manifold over past 10 years in Kupwara district, witnessing as many as 30 deaths in the past years. Official sources reveal that in comparison to 430 patients suffering from different forms of TB in year 2004, some 600 patients were found to be suffering from different types of the disease till September this year with eight deaths most probably caused due to most deadly form of TB. The number of patients infected with sputum positive (TB) has gone up to 450 by end of past 09 months of year 2011. The number was 530 by end of year 2010. Experts believe that TB is deadliest and infectious disease and kills more adults than any other infectious disease and nearly two persons die every 3 minutes that is about 1000 people get killed due to TB disease everyday in India. About 40 per cent of general population carries the bacteria of the disease in their bodies and 10 per cent of such population gets active disease during their lifetime. District Tuberculosis Officer (DTO), Dr Mohammad Ramzan who heads the department in this north Kashmir district talked at length about the symptoms and preventive measures of different forms of TB. According to the experts of the DTO, TB mainly affects lungs but other organs can also be involved. "The disease spreads by coughing, shouting, talking, and sneezing by an actively infected lung disease TB patient (Sputum Positive). Such a person through the bacteria in the open air and these bacteria remain suspended in the air and are inhaled by other individuals and if such a TB patient is not brought on treatment can infect 10-15 persons in a year and the chain goes on,” DTO Ramzan said and added that the disease is found everywhere and nobody is safe from the disease in our setup. It is almost equally found in urban and rural areas including Tribal areas but slightly more in poor people, he added. The experts say that the main symptoms of this infectious disease that has plagued humans since the Neolithic times is cough of 15 days or more with fever (evenings), loss of appetite and loss of weight, besides chest pain and expectoration of blood in some cases. “The simple and best method of diagnosing lung TB is by Sputum test which is being done in Government health care system free of cost everywhere in the country at Designated Microscopy Centers (DMCs),” adds Dr Ramzan. The hoarding erected outside the local Deputy Commissioner’s office appeals masses to approach their local TB centre which provides treatment to all the infected persons under direct observatory treatment scheme (DOTS). Under the scheme, the patient is given the medicine by the employee of health department at the tuberculosis centre free of cost and a record register is maintained to complete the course of treatment under norms.