India witnesses 19% increase in TB patients in 2021: Report

Despite the brief decline in TB notifications observed around the months corresponding to India's two major Covid19 waves, 2021 witnessed a 19 percent increase from the previous year in TB patients' notification- the total number of incident TB patients (new and relapse) notified during 2021 were 19,33,381 as opposed to that of 16,28,161 in 2020.

New Delhi: Despite the brief decline in TB notifications observed around the months corresponding to India's two major Covid19 waves, 2021 witnessed a 19 percent increase from the previous year in TB patients' notification- the total number of incident TB patients (new and relapse) notified during 2021 were 19,33,381 as opposed to that of 16,28,161 in 2020.

As per the India TB Report 2021, 18 States have committed to ending TB by 2025 by formally implementing the state-specific strategic plan and have gone a step ahead to devise a district-specific strategic plan, which shall serve as a guiding tool for the program managers and staff at the district and sub-district level towards the elimination of Tuberculosis.

As per the report, the estimated incidence of all forms of TB in India for the year 2020 was 188 per 100,000 population (129-257 per 100,000 population). Drug Resistance TB in India, 2021: There are five categories of drug-resistant TB used by the national health programs at present: isoniazid (INH) resistant TB, RR-TB, and MDR-TB (RR and INH resistant), plus pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (pre-XDR-TB), and XDR-TB. "The estimated number of MDR and XDR-TB cases to have been put on treatment as per the global TB report 2021 was 4 per 100,000 and 1 per 100,000 population.

Mortality due to TB:
The estimated mortality rate among all forms of TB was 37 per 100,000 population (34-40 per 100,000 population), in 2020, as per the global TV report 2021.
"There has been a slight increase in the mortality rate due to all forms of TB between 2019 and 2020 by 11 percent in the country. In absolute numbers, the total number of estimated deaths from all forms of TB excluding HIV, for 2020 was 4.93 lakhs (4.53 to 5.36 lakh) in the country, which is 13 percent higher than that of the year 2019 estimate," the report said.
Estimates of catastrophic costs due to TB:
Poverty is both a risk factor and a consequence of TB, and it disproportionately affects the households with low socio-economic status causing a financial burden on them, thereby resulting in detrimental outcomes like delayed care-seeking, increased default rates, and poor treatment outcomes.
"One of the reasons for poor compliance to the treatment thereby leading to low success rate to treatment is the cost that the disease imposes on individuals and families affected. Such costs could lead to financial catastrophe, and in India, around 18 percent of the general population experience such catastrophic healthcare expenditure," the report said.