According to the annual TB Report 2020, released yesterday, India recorded 24 lakh tuberculosis cases and over 79,000 deaths due to the disease in 2019. The numbers, while considerably lower than World Health Organisation estimates, translate into roughly 20,000 deaths every quarter.
The key achievements listed in the Report include:
Around 24.04 Lakh TB patients have been notified in 2019. This amounts to a 14% increase in TB notification as compared to the year 2018.
Achieving near-complete on-line notification of TB patients through the NIKSHAY system.
- Reduction in the number of missing cases to 2.9 lakh cases as against more than 10 lakhs in 2017.
- Private sector notifications increased by 35% with 6.78 lakh TB patients notified.
- Due to easy availability of molecular diagnostics, the proportion of children diagnosed with
- TB increased to 8% in 2019 compared to 6% in 2018.
- Provision of HIV testing for all notified TB patients increased from 67% in 2018 to 81% in 2019.
- Expansion of treatment services has resulted in a 12% improvement in the treatment success rate of notified patients. For 2019 it is 81% compared to 69% in 2018.
- More than 4.5 lakh DOT Centers provide treatment covering almost every village across the country.
- NIKSHAY also expanded the provision of four Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) schemes of the programme –
Nikshay Poshan Yojana (NPY) to TB patients
The incentive to Treatment Supporters
Incentive to Private Providers and
Transport incentive to TB patients in the notified tribal areas
Releasing the Annual TB Report, Dr Harsh Vardhan commended the collective efforts of all who were involved in this task. “The Government of India under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji is committed to achieving the SDG goal of eliminating TB in the country by 2025, five years ahead of the Global Target. To align with the ambitious goal, the programme has been renamed from Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) to National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP)’, he stated.
“As captured in the Annual report, there has been commendable achievement on various parameters of TB Control in the country. The ranking will surely encourage all the States/UTs to improve their performance to attain their targets. Early accurate diagnosis followed by prompt appropriate treatment is vital for ending TB. The National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) has expanded both the laboratory network as well as diagnostic facilities to cover the entire country. To End TB by 2025, expansion of TB services and addressing determinants of TB that are beyond health, through a multi-sectoral approach is necessary. All these efforts are yielding significant results.”
Quarterly ranking on TB elimination efforts
The salient feature of this year is that for the first time Central TB Division (CTD) introduced a quarterly ranking on TB elimination efforts by all the states and UTs. Treatment linkage of drug resistant TB patients, HIV testing of TB patients, Nutritional assistance to TB patients in the form of NIKSHAY Poshan Yojana (DBT), Universal Drug Susceptibility Testing (UDST) coverage among notified TB patients, TB Preventive Therapy (TPT) coverage and Financial expenditure are included in the assessment criteria”, the Health Minister highlighted.
