Health ministry hopes the number of cases notified by the private sector will double
Having made non-notification of tuberculosis a punishable offence through a notification earlier this year, health ministry is hoping that the number of TB cases notified by the private sector will more than double this year.
Joint secretary Vikas Sheel on Tuesday said that in 2017, the private sector had reported 3 lakh TB cases. “This year we are hoping that the figure will be 7 lakh,” Sheel said. In March this year the Union health ministry had issued a notification under which non-reporting of TB cases to the local public health authorities by “Clinical Establishment, Pharmacy, Chemist and Druggist” would be treated as a criminal offence under the provisions of sections 269 and 270 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860). The sections provide for imprisonment of upto six months and two years respectively for wilfully spreading an infection that is dangerous to life.
Between 2015 and 2017, TB incidence, reduced from 217 per lakh population to 211. The SDG target is 44 per lakh
TB kills an estimated 480,000 Indians every year and more than 1,400 every day. India also has more than a million ‘missing’ cases every year that are not notified and most remain either undiagnosed or unaccountably and inadequately diagnosed and treated in the private sector.
From April this year, the government has also started a scheme to provide a nutrition support of Rs 500 per month to all TB patients. So far, Sheel said, 1.5 lakh people have already received that amount through direct benefit transfer and the ministry is hopeful of 100% enrolment by the end of July. A total of 13 lakh TB patients are currently registered in the Nikshay portal. Nikshay is a web based solution for monitoring the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), which is the national programme for TB control in India.
The ministry is also planning to track the body mass index of patients to assess whether the nutrition support is being spent for the purpose it is meant for, Sheel added. Cracking down on TB is one of the sustainable development goals. Though prime minister Narendra Modi has committed to meeting that goal five years ahead of schedule by 2025, the reduction in TB incidence between 2015 and 2017 has not been in line with that target.
The incidence, in those two years reduced from 217 per lakh population to 211. The SDG target is 44 per lakh. Conceding that it is a long way to go, Sheel said that the government is doing its best to reach that target.
