India Witnesses 19% Rise In Tuberculosis Cases In 2021: Annual TB Report

According to the report, the total number of fresh and relapsed TB cases in India was 19,33,381 in 2021 as against 16,28,161 in 2020.    

India Witnesses 19% Rise In Tuberculosis Cases In 2021: Annual TB Report (Representative Image)

New Delhi: India has witnessed a 19 per cent rise in the number of tuberculosis cases in 2021 as compared to the previous year, stated the annual TB report released by Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday.   

According to the report, the total number of fresh and relapsed TB cases in India was 19,33,381 in 2021 as against 16,28,161 in 2020.    

"There has been a slight increase in the mortality rate due to all forms of TB between 2019 and 2020 by 11 per cent in the country," the report said.

Despite the brief drop in tuberculosis notifications around the months corresponding to India's two major Covid-19 waves, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) reclaimed these numbers, the report said.

In absolute numbers, the total count of estimated fatalities from all forms of TB, excluding HIV, for the year 2020 was 4.93 lakhs (4.53-5.36 lakhs) in the country, that is 13 per cent higher that of the estimate of 2019.

According to the Global TB Report 2021, the estimated mortality rate among all forms of tuberculosis was 37 per lakh population in the year 2020.

The government report stated that poverty acts as a risk factor as it affects the households with low socio-economic status causing financial burden, leading to delayed care seeking and poor treatment.

Moreover, one of the reasons for poor compliance to the treatment is the expense that the disease entails. Such costs could lead to financial catastrophe and in India around 18% of the general population experience such catastrophic healthcare expenditure, the report added.

According to a recent systematic review (2020), estimating the direct and indirect patient costs of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant tuberculosis care in India, 7 to 32 per cent of DS-TB patients and 68 per cent of DR-TB are experiencing catastrophic costs for tuberculosis care in the country.

The Covid pandemic has also affected the measures of tuberculosis control programmes globally and more so in the high burden countries, thereby, impacting care-seeking and treatment services, the report further said.