Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a series of initiatives to eliminate tuberculosis. Addressing the ‘One World TB Summit’ on World TB Day in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, the prime minister said the country is working to eliminate tuberculosis by 2025. The global target to eliminate the disease is 2030.
“India’s image reflects in its ideology of ‘Vasudev Kutumbkam’ (whole world one family). This old thought is giving the modern world an integrated vision and solutions,” he said.
Asserting that the thought and approach India against tuberculosis after 2014 is “incredible”, PM Modi said India’s efforts are important as “this is a new model in the global fight against TB.”
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“In nine years, India has united in this fight against TB on many fronts such as public participation, special campaigns for nutrition, new strategies for treatment, intensive use of technology and promoting good health through campaigns like Khelo India and Yoga,” he said.
Noting that 80 per cent of tuberculosis medicines are made in India, the Prime Minister said, “I would like more and more countries to get the benefit of all such campaigns, innovations and modern technology of India.”
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The prime minister said since 2018, about Rs 2,000 crore has been sent directly to the bank accounts of tuberculosis patients and about 75 lakh patients have benefited from it.
“It is difficult to get new results by following the old approach. Started working on a new strategy to ensure that no TB patient is left out of treatment. For testing TB patients, the number of labs has been increased and special plans are made for those where TB patients are more,” he said.
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The prime minister also launched several initiatives, including TB-free panchayats, pan-India rollout of a shorter TB Preventive Treatment (TPT) and a family-centric care model for tuberculosis.
Modi also released India’s Annual TB Report for 2023. He also laid the foundation stone of the National Centre for Disease Control and High Containment (BSL) Laboratory here and unveiled the site for Metropolitan Public Health Surveillance Unit (MSU).
