Tuberculosis infected people are now coming to Government Hospitals for treatment and the numbers are definitely high. There are more than 50 to 70 patients being seen in Government Hospitals every week.
This number in 2022 is alarming as for the past two years, Tuberculosis diagnosis and medication was severely affected due to the pandemic.
Those in the rural areas and low-lying urban pockets are worst affected with the disease. The treatments stopped due to Covid-19 as accessibility to medicines was a challenge.
On World Tuberculosis Day 2022 the focus is to control the disease and get the program of medication back on the track.
What was the disruption noted in the last two years?
- Procurement of medicines for those in the periphery and rural areas stopped.
- Those who suffered from TB and were in one room or area, ended up affecting the rest of the family. Due to this, there are whole families reporting with infection of TB to the hospitals.
- Those who suffered from Covid 19 and developed low-immunity were infected with TB.
- Diagnosis was a challenge and due to that there is now a severe form of disease in the society.
- Multi-Drug Resistant TB is also rising.
- The data from India of last two years is still a challenge as despite it being a notified disease documentation was difficult during pandemic.
Dr Raghavendra Reddy P, consultant interventional pulmonologist at Renova Hospitals says, “For the first time, since 2015 the number of tuberculosis deaths have started increasing. Worldwide 1.5 million people died of TB in 2020. This means that the strategy to control and end TB requires a re-think with newer methods to first identify, track and control. Those who are now returning to Government Hospitals for treatment shows that more efforts will have to be dedicated to first identify and then treat them properly.”
Incidence of Tuberculosis in India is 188 per person per one lakh population. Of the total cases in the world, 26 percent are from India. This includes multi-drug resistant TB and HIV TB cases.
Dr Somashekar N, Director at National Tuberculosis Institute, Bengaluru says, “Most common symptom of TB is cough which lasts for more than two weeks. Weight loss, fever at night, chest pain, fatigue, night sweating and blood sputum are mostly experienced in those suffering from extra pulmonary TB. What we have recently noticed is that TB is also a cause for infertility.”
What are the control measures put by India?
India is the second country in the World to give conditional approval for pretomanid in July 2020, which can be provided under National Tuberculosis Elimination Program. This is being seen as a huge step towards meeting the goal of Ending TB from India by 2025 according to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Investments and research on TB are important and with Covid 19 pandemic the focus is on curing the oldest disease in the world stated TB Alliance, a non-profit organization creating awareness about the disease in the country.
