If you go on a foreign trip, some medical checkups are necessary for every person. But some countries have made one medical test absolutely mandatory for Indians and that is TB test. Actually, the reason behind this is that according to the ‘World Health Organization’, India has the highest number of TB patients in the world. In the year 2018, PM Modi started the TB-free India campaign. But seeing the increasing number of patients of this disease, will India be able to achieve this target by the year 2025? Will the global target of eliminating TB be achieved by 2030?
Let us talk openly about the condition of this disease at the ground level in India.
16 year old Harshita Singh is under a lot of tension regarding her class 12th board exams. A student of Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya in Jahangirpuri, she has not gone to school for the last three months and has also skipped her pre-board exams after being diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) in July. Sitting on the bed in the family’s one-bedroom apartment in D Block of Jahangirpuri, Harshita, wrapped in a green jacket and a quilt, is quite tensed about her future.
According to the WHO Global TB Report by 2024 and India TB Report by 2024, India will not be able to meet the 2025 milestone set by the WHO End TB Strategy. Achieving the ambitious target of eliminating TB by 2025 is a far cry. Even in 2023, India has not been able to meet the End TB Strategy’s 2020 milestone for both TB incidence and deaths. India’s target In 2018, the central government set an ambitious target for India to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025. The aim of which is to achieve this five years before the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target of 2030. PM Modi reiterated this goal during the One World TB Summit in Varanasi in March 2023.
SDG targets for TB:
The SDG target is to reduce TB deaths by 90% and TB incidence by 80% by 2030 compared to 2015 levels.
Apart from this, WHO’s TB elimination strategy aims to reduce TB deaths by 75% and TB incidence by 50% by 2025 compared to 2015 levels.
India’s progress: According to India TB Report 2024
TB incidence rate (per 100,000) TB mortality rate (per 100,000) Reduction in TB incidence (%) Reduction in TB mortality (%)
India’s progress: per 1 lakh people as per India TB Report 2024
India did not meet the ‘elimination’ targets set for 2023 by India’s National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination. That is, reducing the estimated TB incidence rate to 77 per lakh population and reducing the estimated TB deaths to six per 1,00,000 population.
What is TB disease?
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
TB usually affects the lungs (pulmonary TB), but can also affect other parts (extrapulmonary TB). TB spreads from one person to another through air. When people infected with TB infection cough, sneeze or otherwise transmit respiratory fluids through the air.
Know the story of a TB patient
Now you will think that after all we are talking about Harshita. Actually, we are talking about Harshita because on one hand, awareness and campaign regarding TB is being run in the entire country. On the other hand, the girl is sitting in her room thinking that if she does not get treatment at the right time, one year of her life will be wasted. She says that due to this disease her studies will be adversely affected. One whole year will be wasted. School fees, tuition fees. Everything was ruined. MDR TB is caused by germs that are resistant to two or more of the main tuberculosis drugs. Are resistant to isoniazid and rifampin. The medicines are purchased by the State Program Officer and then distributed to hospital pharmacies and dispensaries. Where patients can get them for free. A government dispensary five minutes away from Harshita’s home provides TB medicine only once in five days if they have stock.
The system regarding TB in the country is like this at the ground level.
His mother Jyoti Singh went to the dispensary at 9.30 am on Saturday, but returned empty handed. Jyoti says he said that the medicines are over. I will tell my husband’s brother to buy medicines from a private pharmacy despite the high price. We have to ensure that Harshita’s treatment continues. On Monday she went to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital. But they did not find anything. After this she went to the dispensary and somehow was able to buy pills that would last for five days. Jyoti told that in these five months, she got Linezolid and Cycloserine medicines from the dispensary only for one month. A strip of six Cycloserine tablets costs Rs 350, while Harshita has to take the medicine twice a day.
Disclaimer: Some of the information given in the news is based on media reports. Before implementing any suggestion, you must consult the concerned expert.
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