India missed 2.9L TB cases in 2019, down from 10L previously
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 24
India missed 2.9 lakh tuberculosis cases in 2019, down from 10 lakh over the previous year, riding on massive gains in case notifications.
Published today, India TB Report 2020 says the country saw record high TB notifications in 2019, reaching 24.04 lakh cases, of which 94 per cent have been put on treatment.
The WHO projects annual TB incidence of 26.9 lakh cases for India, but a majority go undetected and untreated. India has the highest TB burden in the world.
“TB notifications in 2019 rose by 14 per cent over 2018. We were missing 10 lakh cases annually. This is down to 2.9 lakh. It’s a significant achievement for TB elimination efforts and we are confident of meeting elimination targets ahead of the national deadline of 2025. TB test coverage for HIV patients has increased from 67 pc in 2018 to 81 pc in 2019,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said today.
Private doctors notified 6.7 lakh cases among 24.04 lakh, reporting 45 pc rise in notifications. Areas of concern are the predominant disease burden in 18 to 30-year-olds and a whopping 66,359 cases of multi-drug resistant TB in 2019. The Health Ministry says 85 per cent of them are on treatment.
Another challenge is the burden of paediatric tuberculosis, which is one of the 10 major causes of mortality globally among children under 15 years. Globally, in 2018, an estimated 11 lakh children fell ill with TB and 2.5 lakh died. In India, about 3.43 lakh cases of paediatric TB are estimated to occur every year, accounting for 31 per cent of the global burden and 13 per cent of the overall TB burden in the country. The number of deaths in 2019 were 79,144.
