New Delhi:
India witnessed a 16 per cent increase in the number of tuberculosis cases reported in 2018 against the previous year’s figure of 18 lakh, according to an official report released on Wednesday.
According to the ‘India TB Report 2019’, of the total notifications, 25 per cent (5.4 lakh) cases were reported from the private sector, a 40 per cent increase from last year.
This indicates an increased engagement with private sector providers and patients seeking care from them.
In 2018, 21.5 lakh TB cases were notified to the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), compared to 18 lakh in 2017 — an increase of 16 per cent in one year.
Besides, 79 per cent of patients notified for TB in 2017 (across both public and private sectors) have successfully completed their treatment, while 49,733 cases were detected due to the efforts of the Active Case Finding Campaign, for which 14.4 crore vulnerable people were screened.
Special Secretary Sanjeeva Kumar of the Union Ministry of Health, in his message in the report, said the efforts to improve diagnostics has led to a 52 per cent increase in drug-resistant TB detection, along with decentralisation of drug resistant treatment centres (DR-TB) centres from 197 to 509 in the past one 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,” he said.
Free diagnosis and treatment services are available under the RNTCP for all drugs sensitive as well as drug resistant TB cases and adequate drug stocks have been made available.
According to the report, Uttar Pradesh, with 17 per cent of population of the country, reported the maximum 4.2 lakh cases, accounting to 20 per cent of the total notifications.
Delhi and Chandigarh stand apart from all other states and Union territories with regard to notification rate relative to their resident population, it said.
Their annual notification is 504 cases/lakh population and 496 cases/lakh population. This is because patients residing in many other parts of the country are diagnosed/notified from these two UTs.
The characteristics of the affected population largely remain similar with majority of the affected individuals being in the age group of 15-69 years and 2/3rd being males. HIV co-infection among TB was nearly fifty thousand cases amounting to TB HIV co-infection rate of 3.4 per cent, the report said.
The improved notification is dependent on increased access to TB diagnostic services, the report said.
TB is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV and HIV co-infection rates among incident TB patients is estimated to be three per cent and 86,000 HIV-associated TB patients are emerging annually.
In terms of numbers, India ranks second in the world and accounts for about nine per cent of the global burden of HIV-associated TB, the report said.
The mortality in this group is very high and 11,000 people with HIV die every year due to TB, it said.
India is the third highest HIV burden country in the world, with an adult prevalence of 0.22 per cent, it added.
People living with HIV (PLHIV) are at 21 times higher risk of developing tuberculosis. TB-HIV co-infection results in higher mortality rates.
Nearly 25 per cent of all deaths among people living with HIV are estimated to be due to TB. To mitigate the effect of dual burden of HIV and TB, the RNTCP and the National AIDS Control Programme have developed a collaborative framework.
Since April 2018, over 20.8 lakh beneficiaries have received benefits of Rs 427 crore under the Nikshay Poshan Yojana where all such patients are given Rs 500 per month for nutritional assistance during the course of treatment, the report said.
The treatment supporters were paid a total of Rs 17 crore as honorarium. Patients from tribal areas received a total of Rs 1.8 crore as treatment support.
Approximately, Rs 1 crore were paid to private providers as incentives for notification.
