New Delhi, Jun 24 (UNI) Around 24.04 lakh tuberculosis (TB) patients have been notified in 2019 -- a 14 per cent increase -- in TB notification compared to 2018 while there has been a significant reduction in the number of missing cases to 2.9 lakh cases against more than 10 lakh in 2017, an official report here said.
Releasing the annual TB Report, Dr Harsh Vardhan commended the collective efforts of all involved in this task. "The Government of India under the dynamic leadership of the Prime Minister is committed to achieving the SDG goal of eliminating TB in the country by 2025, five years ahead of the global target. To align with the ambitious goal, the programme has been renamed from Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) to National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP)," he stated.
He noted that there had been commendable achievement on various parameters of TB Control in the country. The ranking would encourage all the states to improve their performance to attain their targets, he said and stressed that "early accurate diagnosis followed by prompt appropriate treatment is vital for ending TB.
The National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) has expanded both the laboratory network as well as diagnostic facilities to cover the entire country. To end TB by 2025, expansion of TB services and addressing determinants of TB that are beyond health, through a multi-sectoral approach is necessary. All these efforts are yielding significant results.”
In the categories of larger states with more than 50 lakh population, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh were awarded as best performing states. In the category of smaller states with less than 50 lakh population, Tripura and Nagaland were awarded. In the category of Union Territory, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu were chosen as the best performers.
According to the report, near-complete on-line notification of TB patients through the NIKSHAY system has been achieved. Private sector notifications have risen by 35 per cent with 6.78 lakh TB patients notified. Due to easy availability of molecular diagnostics, the proportion of children diagnosed with TB increased to 8 per cent in 2019 compared to 6 per cent in 2018.
It found that provision of HIV testing for all notified TB patients rose from 67 per cent in 2018 to 81 per cent in 2019 and expansion of treatment services had resulted in a 12 per cent improvement in the treatment success rate of notified patients. Last year it stood at 81
per cent compared to 69 per cent in 2018.
Further, more than 4.5 lakh DOT Centres provided treatment covering almost every village across the country, the report said.
Dr Harsh Vardhan released the annual TB Report 2020, in the presence of his MoS Ashiwni Kumar Choubey through a virtual event. They also released a Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) report, a manual on Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to TB patients under NIKSHAY system, a Training Module, and the quarterly newsletter NIKSHAY Patrika.
Referring to the stigma against TB patients in the country, which was hampering the fight against this disease, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "We as a nation, need to come together, to fight against TB and the stigma surrounding it so that every TB patient can seek care with dignity and without discrimination. The community must act as a wellspring of support and comfort for the patient."
He also underscored the crucial contribution that the private sector can make to the national TB programme by mandatory TB notification and providing quality TB care. With both collaborative and regulatory steps, the country has notified 6,64,584 TB patients in 2019 in the private sector which amounted to a 22 per cent increase in TB notification over the year 2018.
This year's salient feature was the introduction of quarterly ranking on TB elimination efforts by all the states and UTs for the first time by the Central TB Division (CTD). Treatment linkage of drug resistant TB patients, HIV testing of TB patients, nutritional assistance to TB patients in the form of NIKSHAY Poshan Yojana (DBT), Universal Drug Susceptibility Testing (UDST) coverage among notified TB patients, TB Preventive Therapy (TPT) coverage and Financial expenditure were included in the assessment criteria.
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