27% of new TB infections in India: WHO Global Report | news from India

According to the WHO World Report on Tuberculosis 2018, new TB cases may be declining, but India accounted for 27% of total new infections in 2017, the highest among the 30 countries the most. more affected by tuberculosis.

Of the 10 million new cases reported in 2017, 2.74 million were from India, a slight decrease from the 2.79 million reported in the WHO report for 2017.

Although the report pointed to fears of under-reporting cases in India, he also mentioned that India was an example of a country that had taken important steps in 2017-2018 to expand cash transfers specific to tuberculosis and.

The National Tuberculosis Control Program and the National AIDS Control Organization in India have collected data to evaluate TB screening activities among people attending antiretroviral treatment centers for HIV treatment.

"Our TB notifications have increased, especially since our recent orders, which include jail time for doctors, chemists or lab owners who do not report cases. We hope that it will go further in the coming months and that these patients will be treated, "said Sanjeeva Kumar, additional secretary (health), Ministry of Health of the Union.

In January-August 2018, the private sector reported to the government 3,322,149 patients compared to the total number of patients (3,83,784) reported in 2017.

Tuberculosis is one of the top 10 causes of death and the leading cause in a single infectious agent. Millions of people continue to suffer from tuberculosis each year.

Apart from India, seven other countries alone account for two-thirds of new infections worldwide are China (9%), Indonesia (8%), the Philippines (6%), Pakistan (5%) and Nigeria (4%). , Bangladesh (4%) and South Africa (3%).

Drug-resistant TB continues to be a public health crisis worldwide and in India, with a quarter of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-MDR-TB) reported globally in India alone.

An estimated 558,000 people worldwide in 2017 were resistant to rifampicin, the most effective first-line anti-tuberculosis drug, and 82% of them had multidrug-resistant TB that was resistant to more than one drug. .

First published: Sep 20, 2018 06:54 IST