WHO hailed India’s success in managing TB: Ministry

WHO hailed India’s success in managing TB: Ministry

Subject :Schemes

Section: Health

Context:

India has made tremendous progress in improving case detection and reversed the impact of COVID­19 on the tuberculosis(TB) programme, noted the World Health Organization’s (WHO)‘Global TB Report 2023’ released earlier this  week, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

India’s Alarming TB Burden:

• India accounts for 27% of the world’s TB burden.
• Recorded 2.8 million TB cases with a 12% case fatality ratio, estimating 342,000 TB-related deaths.
• MDR-TB Crisis: India recorded 1.1 lakh cases of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in 2022.

About Tuberculosis (TB):

• Causal Agent:  Mycobacterium tuberculosis 
• Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is given to babies or small children to prevent TB.
• Transmission: Airborne infection, spreads through close contact in poorly ventilated, crowded spaces.
• Symptoms of Active Lung TB: Cough with sputum, sometimes containing blood, Chest pains, Weakness, Weight loss, Fever, Night sweats.

India’s Initiatives to Eliminate TB:

• Under the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan, India aims to eliminate TB from the country by 2025 (5 years earlier than the global target of 2030).
• The national strategic plan 2017-2025 sets the target of India reporting no more than 44 new TB cases or 65 total cases per lakh population by 2025.
• An online Ni-kshay portal has been set up to track the notified TB cases.
• In 2018 Nikshay Poshan Yojna was launched, which aimed to support every Tuberculosis (TB) Patient by providing a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of Rs 500 per month for nutritional needs.

Treatment:

• TB is a treatable and curable disease. It is treated with a standard 6-month course of 4 antimicrobial drugs that are provided with information, supervision and support to the patient by a health worker or trained volunteer.
• Anti-TB medicines have been used for decades and strains that are resistant to 1 or more of the medicines have been documented in every country surveyed.
• Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a form of TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most powerful, first-line anti-TB drugs.
• MDR-TB is treatable and curable by using second-line drugs such as Bedaquiline.
• Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is a more serious form of MDR-TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to the most effective second-line anti-TB drugs, often leaving patients without any further treatment options.

Global Efforts to Combat TB?

• The WHO has launched a joint initiative “Find. Treat. All. #EndTB” with the Global Fund and Stop TB Partnership.
• WHO also releases the Global Tuberculosis Report.

About Global Tuberculosis Programme:

• The WHO Global Tuberculosis Programme works towards the goal of a world free of TB, with zero deaths, disease and suffering due to the disease. The team’s mission is to lead and guide the global effort to end the TB epidemic through universal access to people-centred prevention and care, multisectoral action and innovation.