Notwithstanding the advancement in medical sciences, India is nowhere near the eradication of Tuberculosis (TB) from the country. The mortality rate and incidence of TB remains high as highlighted by the Centre in its recently released TB India, 2023 report. The report informed that the government failed to meet the target set after extensive consultations between both the Centre and state governments.
The national plan envisaged to eliminate TB in 2018, set the target of reducing fatalities caused by TB to 15 per lakh by 2020. Unfortunately in 2023, the number stands at 23 Lakh, making a mockery of the said target. The situation is similar in the number of cases. The same plan aimed to bring down the incidence of TB to 142 per lakh of the population. But the figure stood at 194 in 2020 and rose to 196 in 2022. This is a reflection of a huge gap between the target’s that were set and the eventual results.
However, this candid admission by the authorities is under question by many independent health experts in the country. They argue that the number of both fatalities and incidences are much higher than the figures printed in the government report. Experts have called for an extensive study, especially in rural areas, to get a more accurate assessment. They argue that a number of TB cases go unreported due to deficiencies in our primary healthcare system in certain parts of the country. At the same time many victims prefer to hide the disease as there remains various social taboos associated with it. This is why many cases in rural areas have escaped notice regularly. They strongly advocate that in order to tame the disease, the government should put more stress on rural India, rather than urban and semi-urban areas.
It is indeed a matter of concern that even after more than seven and a half decades of Independence, India contributes 30 per cent of TB cases in the world. The figure proves that not much has changed since the historic day in August, 1947 as far as this disease is concerned. Poverty and malnutrition contributes generously to the spread of TB. Both these factors can be tackled with proper and effective planning including identification of patients, treatment and post-recovery care to prevent the disease from making a comeback. But all plans to provide modern medical facilities to TB patients in India have remained largely on paper. Only a fraction of these ambitious plans have reached the affected people. The authorities should conduct comprehensive investigation in order to identify what went wrong in the country’s endeavor to eradicate TB. It should be noted that even if the incidence of TB is showing a recent downward trend, we still have miles to go if we are to fulfill the Prime Minister’s ambitious announcement to eliminate TB from the country by 2025, at the One World TB summit held recently.
Tuberculosis Tuberculosis Tuberculosis Tuberculosis
