Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan recently addressed the ministers of the Member Nations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and heads and representatives of the United Nation agencies and partner organisations and shed light on India’s role and contribution towards strengthening multisectoral action and progress towards ending TB, especially in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Emphasizing India’s role, Dr Vardhan said, “In India, under the guidance of our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, India has accorded high priority for ending tuberculosis by 2025, five years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).”
“Tuberculosis has been in existence since time immemorial and continues to remain a major global public health problem. Despite the progress made over the last decade, TB remains the leading infectious killer disease worldwide,” he added. The Minister announced that with “bold and innovative policies supported by commensurate resources.” India has taken several critical steps towards ending tuberculosis. Revealing data, Vardhan said that the number of missing TB patients has reduced from one million in 2016 to less than 0.5 million in 2019, with 2.4 million cases notified during the year. A third of these notifications were contributed by the private sector, the Union Minister went on to add.
He also highlighted that poverty is a powerful determinant of tuberculosis and undernutrition an important risk factor of developing active TB disease. “To address this, we are providing cash incentives through Direct Benefit Transfers for nutritional support and since April 2018, Rs 7.9 billion (around USD 110 million) have been distributed to over 3 million beneficiaries. Affordable and quality TB care is a priority for our Government”, he stated.
The Minister further spoke about India’s fight against COVID-19 and said: “We reached a historic low in the month of April with lockdown in full force, but through sustained efforts, we have managed an increase of 43% in May and another 25% in June.” To mitigate the impact, the government has been issuing constant advisories to the States to ensure convergence of TB case finding with COVID-19 efforts, he said adding that “we have initiated bi-directional screening among TB and COVID patients, and screening for TB among influenzas like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI).”
