TB Prevention in India: How India is Controlling the Menace

Posted on: Feb 14, 2025 | 3 mins | Written by: HDFC ERGO Team

TB Prevention in India: How India is Controlling the Menace

Tuberculosis (TB) is among the leading killer infectious diseases today, even with all the anti-TB campaigns that have been made in the past few decades. As it currently stands, TB is claimed to be the leading cause of death amongst those who are HIV positive and the world’s worst infectious disease. India is the second largest populous country in the world and yet it carries the highest burden of TB globally. The disease also deprives the socio-economic and demographic facilities of the nation in addition to the health of the person involved.

Where Does India Stand on TB Eradication?

India has been trying to stop the transmission of TB through different programs and plans. The government for this purpose has implemented the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) in coordination with the Central Tuberculosis Division (CTD) and its partners to achieve the goal of providing quality care to all TB patients and reducing the burden of this disease, aiming to end it by 2025, which is five years ahead of the WHO End TB Strategy 2030. The government has also come up with the Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP) that provides diagnosis and treatment for the disease for all patients for free in the country.

India in 2020 was the second TB-affected country in the world, with WHO estimating in 2020 new TB cases at 2.04 million, which is about 27% of the global estimate. Although the country has made achievements in case detection and treatment success rates and prevalence of TB, a lot of work is still ongoing. According to global reports, 2020 detected and officially notified estimated TB patients were only 64%, with a new treatment success rate of 87% while the cure rate from previous treatment regimens was only 57%.

The current ongoing control strategy in the country is the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP), whose goal is to identify, treat, and prevent TB and rifampicin-resistant TB. However, a TB-free India means other vital social, economic, and healthcare system changes that are complementary elements of anti-TB solutions.

However, these initiatives are not sufficient; India is the country with the maximum TB incidence in the world; India has 27% of the TB burden globally. The new TB incidence rate is estimated at 2.8 million per year and there are 469,000 estimated TB-related deaths per year in the country. This clearly suggests that India still has a long way to go in containing the TB problem.

The WHO’s Data

TB in India accounts for 27% of total global cases contributing to 532,000 new cases of TB and 160,961 deaths from TB, which is the highest number in any country as per WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2020. The Indian government plans to eliminate TB by setting a goal to reduce the incidence rate by 90% by 2035 and the death rate by 95% by 2035. Nonetheless, it appears that even these targets could not be achieved in the absence of significant efforts, bearing in mind current circumstances.

However, one of the barriers to current strategies for TB prevention and control in India is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Indian population with HIV exceeds 1.2 million and TB is a major AIDS-defining illness among this population. The prevention of TB among people in India should focus on HIV-TB coepidemiology which may be implemented through improved partnerships between advocates and workers of HIV prevention and management programs.

With recent government strategies to ‘test and treat’ TB patients diagnosed with HIV, it will be easier to identify TB cases among HIV-positive individuals early and treat them before further spread occurs. It entails utilizing health insurance policies for those affected by HIV under existing NACO programs. This could greatly help ensure that HIV-co-infected TB patients receive necessary treatment and care to stop TB.

What Can India Do to Prevent TB from Spreading?

The following measures should be taken to address challenges faced by current approaches towards preventing TB in India:

1. Enhance RNTCP Adequacy

India must remain committed to enhancing RNTCP as well as strengthening the new National Tuberculosis Elimination Plan.

2. Special Attention to Treatment Integration

The government needs to pay special attention to integrating critical illness insurance for underprivileged populations. Being insured means that diseases will be diagnosed early, treated early, thus preventing their spread.

3. Make TB Insurance Coverage Cheaper

This can be achieved through policies targeting health insurance providers who may include TB treatment in their critical illness insurance packages.

4. Public Awareness Campaigns

The government should initiate public awareness campaigns educating people on how to prevent or diagnose TB early which will help reduce incidence through timely diagnosis and notification.

5. Public-Private Partnerships

Public-private partnerships are critical in tuberculosis prevention because most private practitioners are responsible for treating this disease.

6. Provide Incentives

Incentives can be provided such as health insurance covering TB treatment, including offering incentives for private healthcare facilities to report more TB cases while ensuring insurance companies include TB treatment as part of approved benefits.

7. Increase Research Investment

More efforts should be made towards research investment focusing on better diagnostic methods and treatments for TB. New drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic tools can aid in combating this disease effectively.

8. Address Socio-Economic Factors

The government needs to focus on socio-economic factors influencing TB in India such as poverty, malnutrition, overcrowding, and low literacy levels.

Conclusion

Altogether, India’s fight against TB is not yet over. Despite significant governmental efforts aimed at eradicating this disease, it remains endemic within the country. This deadly disease must be fought collectively involving government bodies, healthcare organizations, insurers, and society at large. Preventing millions from developing tuberculosis may require overcoming these difficulties while implementing effective strategies aimed at curbing its spread throughout India.

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