TUBERCULOSIS

• Caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis)
• Most often affect the lungs but not just lungs but also other parts.
• Spread through the air, just like a cold or the flu.

SITUATION RIGHT NOW

• According to the WHO’s Global TB Report 2021, an 18 per cent decline in case notifications is perhaps the biggest indicator of the pandemic’s impact on global tuberculosis programmes.
• India reported a substantial drop in notifications — the country reported 18 lakh tuberculosis cases in 2020 compared to 24 lakh cases in 2019.
• With a total estimated incidence of 25.9 lakh TB cases, India is home to a quarter of the global burden of the disease.

WHAT IS INDIA DOING

• Since 2016, India has been on a mission mode to eliminate TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target.
• With a four-fold increase in the budget to tackle the disease and a patient-centric National Strategic Plan for TB elimination, India had taken enormous strides towards reaching its goal.

IMPACT OF COVID

• Fear of Covid lockdowns and economic stress discouraged people from visiting medical facilities to get tested.
• This exacerbated the pre-existing health-seeking behaviour of people who, under normal circumstances too, would shy away from getting medical care.

TB MUKTH BHARATH

• Launched under the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination in a mission mode for ending the epidemic by 2025.
• Multi-pronged approach which aims to detect all TB patients with an emphasis on reaching TB patients seeking care from private providers and undiagnosed TB in high-risk populations

About National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination

• Framework to guide the activities of all stakeholders whose work is relevant to TB elimination in India.
• Provides goals and strategies for the country’s response to the disease during the period 2017 to 2025.
• Direct the attention of all stakeholders on the most important interventions or activities that the RNTCP believes will bring about significant changes in the incidence, prevalence and mortality of TB.
• Guide the development of the national project implementation plan (PIP) and state PIPs, as well as district health action plans (DHAP) under the national health mission (NHM).
• VISION: TB-Free India with zero deaths, disease and poverty due to tuberculosis
• GOAL: To achieve a rapid decline in burden of TB, morbidity and mortality while working towards elimination of TB in India by 2025.

WAYS FOR EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION

• Important to increase levels of awareness of people about the disease
• Ensure that the people affected by the disease overcome social insecurities and access TB care and utilise the government’s TB programme.
• Active Case Finding (ACF) drives organised by the National TB Elimination Programme merit mention. These drives, implemented for systematic screening of TB among vulnerable populations or regions since 2017, have helped in early case detection. Even during the pandemic, in 2020, approximately 17.9 crore people were screened, and 52,273 TB cases were identified, according to the India TB Report 2021.
• Public participation and community ownership remain intrinsic to any sustainable strategy for TB elimination. It is time for a people’s movements for the elimination of TB.
• Elected representatives’ initiative and participation can certainly help to amplify the right messages about available care services, destigmatise the disease and encourage people to seek care. This could be achieved by supporting grassroots workers such as ASHAs, anganwadi workers and self-help groups who strive hard to sustain a responsive health system at the local level.

CONCLUSION

We will have to fill in the gap created by nearly one and a half years of Covid. While it remains essential to push for more finances and supportive policies at a national level, any tangible impact inevitably happens when the fundamentals of any movement are robust. In this case, the fundamentals are the people and community leaders. Collectively, we must keep alive this jan andolan against TB till the most vulnerable can secure themselves a safer future. Only then will we as a people achieve the ultimate objective of a “TB-mukt Bharat”.