New Delhi, August 1: Over 10.3 lakh tuberculosis cases and 44,800 deaths due to the disease were reported between January and May this year, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday. Of the total 44,800 deaths logged in Ni-kshay portal, 3,323 (7.4 per cent) fatalities were reported among drug-resistant TB patients till May 2023, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in a written reply to a question.

She said of the 10,38,878 cases, 7,91,471 were cases of pulmonary TB and 2,47,407 of extra-pulmonary TB. In 2022, 24,02,024 cases of tuberculosis and 1,06,392 fatalities were recorded. Of the 1,06,392 deaths reported in Ni-kshay portal, 8,208 (7.7 per cent) were deaths among the drug-resistant TB patients. WHO Launches 'One Life, One Liver' Campaign on World Hepatitis Day.

The government has implemented the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) with a goal to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to TB by 2025, Pawar said.

The key activities implemented under NTEP include state and district-specific strategic plan for targeted interventions in high-burden areas, provision of free drugs and diagnostics to TB patients including for drug-resistant TB, Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana for nutritional support to TB patients and active TB case-finding campaign in key vulnerable and co-morbid populations, she said.

Activities also include integration with Ayushman Bharat - Health and Wellness Centres to decentralise screening and treatment services closer to the community, private sector engagement including incentives for notification and management of TB cases, scale up of molecular diagnostic laboratories to sub-district levels and intensified IEC campaigns to reduce stigma, raising community awareness and improve health seeking behaviour and tracking notified TB cases through a case-based web-based portal namely Ni-kshay, the minister said.

Besides, Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (PMTBMBA) was launched by the Ministry on September 9, 2022 for community support to TB patients, with the objective to provide people with TB with additional nutritional, diagnostic and vocational support, Pawar said.

The Ni-kshay 2.0 portal has been developed and made available in public domain for facilitating the community to register as Ni-kshay Mitra. Periodic reviews are done to monitor the progress of the initiative at national, state and UT levels, she said. Study Reveals How Tuberculosis Cases in Prisons Worldwide Go Unnoticed.

The availability of medicines and diagnostics has improved significantly as has the use of telemedicine and other digital technologies to ensure a continuum of care, Pawar said. A third-party assessment of delivery of healthcare services by Sub-Health Centres and Primary Health Centres before and after transformation into AB-HWCs was undertaken in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar from December 2022 to January 2023, She said.

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