New Delhi: World Health Organization, WHO has acknowledged India’s success in declining TB incidence by 16 percent and TB mortality reduction by 18 percent in the year 2022 since 2015. The World Health Organization released its Global TB Report 2023 yesterday which states that India has made tremendous progress in improving case detection and reversed the impact of COVID-19 on the TB programme. It said that the treatment coverage has improved to 80 percent of the estimated TB cases, an increase of 19 percent over the previous year.
WHO has made a downward revision of the TB mortality rates from 4.94 lakhs in 2021 to 3.31 lakhs in 2022 showing a reduction of over 34 percent. The report notes that India’s intensified case detection strategies have resulted in the highest-ever notification of cases in the year 2022, during which over 24.22 lakh TB cases were notified, surpassing the pre-COVID levels. The Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan has received a tremendous response across the country with over 1 lakh Ni-kshay Mitras from all walks of life coming forward to adopt over 11 lakh TB patients. Under Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana, about 2 thousand 613 crore rupees have been disbursed to over 95 lakh TB patients since its launch in 2018. Newer patient-centric initiatives like ‘Family Care Giver Model’ and ‘Differentiated Care’ have been introduced to ensure a further reduction in mortality and improvement in treatment success rates. According to the Health Ministry, the Global TB report also noted that India has taken bold steps to prioritize TB elimination efforts by investing additional resources in the National TB Elimination Programme.
