Health Ministry reworks protocol as country’s TB elimination drive plateaus

• India’s goal to achieve rapid decline in the burden of tuberculosis (TB) morbidity and mortality, while working towards the elimination of TB in the country by 2025

Highlights:

• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is looking at reworking the protocol, specifically TB medication and its duration, to reboot the TB-free initiative for eliminating deaths, disease, and poverty resulting from the infection.
• According to the Health Ministry, India has been engaged in TB control activities for more than 50 years, yet the disease continues to be the country’s severest health crisis.
• TB kills an estimated 4,80,000 Indians every year or over 1,400 patients every day.
• Additionally, the country also has more than a million ‘missing’ TB cases annually.
• Most remain either undiagnosed, or inadequately diagnosed and treated in the private sector.
• There are several new technologies which help in early detection and we are also better prepared to address TB.
• We now have advanced and effective interventions and technologies for diagnosis, treatment and care of TB.
• The Ministry, however, maintains there is a need to recognise that more needs to be done to drastically reduce the incidence of TB in India.

Prelims Takeaway:

• ICMR
• TB