BackNeed to address drug-resistant TB cases in India: health secretary
Lov Verma said an action plan has been developed to improve access to tribal and other marginalized groups
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New Delhi: India accounts for nearly one-fourth of global incident cases of tuberculosis (TB) and public health officials are working on finding a cure for drug-resistant tuberculosis, Union health secretary Lov Verma said on Wednesday.
“India has the highest tuberculosis burden in the world, accounting for nearly one-fourth of the global incidence. In 2012, out of the estimated global annual incidence of 8.7 million TB cases, 2 to 2.4 million were estimated to have occurred in India," he said.
Verma was addressing the Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India) Tuberculosis Awareness, Prevention and Wellness Programme in the capital.
Under the revised national tuberculosis control programme (RNTCP), treatment success rates have tripled from 25% in the pre-RNTCP era to 88% up to 2012 and the TB death rate has reduced from 29$ to 4% during the same period.
The inception of the programme has examined more than 144 million suspected TB patients, diagnosed more than 18 million TB cases and saved more than 3.2 million lives.
“To improve access to tribal and other marginalized groups the programme has developed a Tribal action plan which is being implemented with the provision of additional TB units and DMCs in tribal and difficult areas along with additional staff, compensation for transportation of patient and attendant and higher rate of salary to contractual staff," the Verma said.
Nearly 3,397 NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and 13,525 private practitioners are involved in the programme in different signed schemes.
Dr Nata Menabde, World Health Organization (WHO) representative to India, emphasized the urgent need to improve efforts to prevent and address the social determinants of health.
“India has 26% of the incident TB cases globally. Annually, 1.3 million incident TB cases are notified to the national programme. The patients who access the public health programme get quality assured diagnosis and treatment," Menabde said.
“However, there are an estimated 2.2 million incident TB cases in India. Hence, there are nearly a million cases missing from notification. This missing million are unable to avail government services as most of them are managed in the private sector," she said.
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