Over 21.5 Lakh Tuberculosis Cases Reported in 2018 in India

In India, about 21.5 lakh tuberculosis (TB) cases were reported to the government in 2018, as compared to 18 lakh cases in 2017. There has been a 17 percent increase and this calls for better reporting and subsequent treatment, reveals the Annual India TB Report for 2019.// As per the report, the sustained efforts of the Union government towards TB control have led to an increase in notifications and improvements in diagnostics, adherence and treatment outcomes.

Notifications from private sector health care providers reached 5.4 lakhs, an increase of 40 percent, contributing to 25 percent of all TB notifications.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced India's revised target for ending TB by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal target of 2030. India accounts for a quarter of the global TB burden with new cases in 2018 which could go up to an estimated 27 lakh.

Under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP), 14.4 crore vulnerable people were screened, resulting in reporting of an additional 49,733 cases. The efforts to improve diagnostics has led to a 52 percent increase in drug-resistant TB detection, along with decentralization of drug resistant treatment centers (DR-TB) from 197 to 509 in the past year.

The largest ever National Drug Resistance Survey in the world for 13 Anti-TB drugs has been completed and it has indicated about 6.2 per cent prevalence of drug resistant TB in India among all TB patients.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday launched the "TB Harega Desh Jeetega" campaign, along with the National TB Prevalence Survey.

Multi-stakeholder and community participation will form the pivot of the countrywide campaign. "As part of our commitment to end TB, we have established patient forums in over 95 percent of all districts in the first 100 days, which clearly shows our strong commitment to ending TB in the shortest time," he said.



Source-IANS