Reaffirming India’s commitment to eliminate tuberculosis, PM Narendra Modi Tuesday called for a “whole-of-government” and “whole-of-society” approach to scaling up the successful strategies nationwide.
Chairing a meeting to review status of National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), the PM stressed the need to analyse the trends of TB cases in urban or rural areas and based on people’s occupations. This, he said, will help identify groups that need early testing and treatment, especially workers in construction, mining, textile mills and similar fields.
The PM also highlighted the importance of cleanliness through Jan Bhagidari (community participation) as a key step in eliminating the disease.
India has set a target for eliminating TB by 2025-end, five years ahead of the global goal. The global End TB Strategy for 2030 says that countries must reduce the number of TB deaths by 90% and new cases by 80% as compared to the levels in 2015.
Towards this goal, the Centre last December launched a 100-day TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan in 347 priority districts.
Under this campaign, health workers looked for TB cases among vulnerable individuals such as household contacts of TB patients, under-nourished individuals, those living with HIV, diabetics, smokers and alcoholics, among others. Over 12.9 crore vulnerable individuals were screened and 7.19 lakh new TB cases detected, including 2.85 lakh asymptomatic patients.
The 100-day campaign would further close the gap between the estimated number of TB patients and reported cases. According to the latest available Global TB report, in 2023, of its estimated 28 lakh cases, India reported 25.2 lakh cases.
According to officials in the know of the matter, several technologies and methods tried out during the campaign would be implemented across the country. Training was underway, they said.
One of the key innovations utilised during the campaign — which helped in detecting several of the asymptomatic patients — was the AI driven hand-held X-ray machines. These machines used AI to read the X-rays without a doctor, meaning these tests could be done by minimally trained health workers.
Another key method was Jan Bhagidari — the participation of parliamentarians, Assembly members, local government representatives, officials and members of the public.
During the meeting, Modi was informed that over 1 lakh new Nikshay Mitras — who provide nutritional support to TB patients during treatment — had augmented the campaign, along with `1,000 support from government.
