India notified the maximum number of 24.04 lakh cases of tuberculosis last year while the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 26.9 lakh cases. This indicates that nearly three lakh patients missed the national TB program. This was revealed in an annual report on tuberculosis released on Wednesday.
Officials said that the India TB Report 2020 states that the reported 79,144 deaths due to tuberculosis in 2019 are far below WHO’s estimate of 4.4 lakh deaths. According to the officials, the difference in estimated cases and notified cases has come down significantly. It has come down from 10 in 2017 to 2.9 lakh in 2019. This has been due to greater interaction with the private health care sector and other initiatives. Let us know that this report has been released in the name of 2020 but the figures are in 2019.
Officials said that in 2019, 24.04 lakh tuberculosis were notified and in that sense it has increased by 14 percent over the previous year. At the same time, the private sector grew by about 35 percent as 6.78 lakh tuberculosis were notified. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, while releasing the annual report, praised the collective efforts in this task and said that the government is committed to eradicate tuberculosis from the country by 2025 which is five years ahead of the global target.
