According to the “India TB Report 2024” released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare(MoHFW) on 27th March 2024, India saw a decline of 16% in the incidence of Tuberculosis(TB) cases (means new cases per year) and 18% reduction in mortality due to TB, since 2015.
Key Findings of the report:
i.The incidence rate in India decreased from 237 per lakh population in 2015 to 199 per lakh population in 2022.
ii.The mortality rate had declined from 28 per lakh population in 2015 to 23 per lakh population in 2022.
iii.A total of 25.5 lakh instances were reported in 2023, the highest ever since 60s. The overall notification of TB cases has improved by over 50% in the last 9 years on an annual basis. About 33%( or 8.4 lakh cases) of notifications came from the private healthcare sector(an increase of 17% compared to 2022).
- Uttar Pradesh(UP) witnessed the highest increase in notification of TB cases by 21% compared to 2022, followed by Bihar (15%).
iv.The number of individuals diagnosed with drug-susceptible(DS) TB in India was 24.7 lakh in 2023.
v.The report noted that the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme(NTEP) had provided free diagnostic services, conducting approximately 189 crore sputum smear tests and 68.3 lakh Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests(NAAT) in 2023.
vi.Under the Nikshay Poshan Yojana, financial support is provided to TB patients through Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT).
- So far, approximately Rs2781 crore has been disbursed to around 1 crore beneficiaries.
- More than 1.5 lakh Ni-kshay Mitras have come forward and committed to support persons affected with TB.
Note: The government of India(GoI) has set the target to eliminate TB from India by 2025.
The estimated number of TB cases is shrinking
i.As per the report, the estimated number and actual number of cases is shrinking. This gap has been reduced over the years due to Ni-kshay portal, which keeps track of all TB patients.
- It states that only 2.3 lakh cases are missing in 2023 compared to 3.2 lakh in 2022.
Points to note:
i.According to the report, the estimated incidence of TB in 2023 moderately increased to 27.8 lakh from the previous estimate of 27.4 lakh. As per the data, the mortality due to the infection remained constant at 3.2 lakh.
- These estimates are based on a new methodology developed by India and also, approved by World Health Organisation(WHO).
ii.The report showed that the number of cases reported in 2022 decreased to 27.4 lakh compared to 29.4 lakh in 2021, which used the previous method.
iii.The report revealed that India achieved its target of initiating treatment in 95% of patients diagnosed with infection.
- 58% of those diagnosed were offered a test to check whether their infection was resistant to the first line of drugs.
- Total Annualized TB Case Notification Rate(ACNR) is 178.8 per lakh population which is the highest ever achieved by India.
- ACNR is the number of TB cases notified per lakh population per annum.
iv.It is estimated that the population facing the burden of health expenditure is greater than or equal to 15% of the population for India.
v.The treatment coverage has improved to 80% of the estimated TB cases.
Recent Related News:
World Tuberculosis(TB) Day is annually observed across the globe on 24 March to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social, and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to strengthen efforts to end the global TB epidemic. The theme of World TB Day 2024 is “Yes! We can end TB”.
About the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare(MoHFW):
Union Minister– Mansukh L. Mandaviya(Rajya Sabha: Gujarat)
Minister of State(MoS)– Bharati Pravin Pawar(Constituency: Dindori, Maharashtra) , Satya Pal Singh Baghel(Constituency: Agra, Uttar Pradesh)
