Harsh Vardhan releases Annual TB Report 2020

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Why in the News?

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare released the annual TB Report 2020 on June 24, 2020. They also released a Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) report, a manual on Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to TB patients under NIKSHAY system, a Training Module, and the quarterly newsletter NIKSHAY Patrika.

What are the numbers?

The key achievements listed in the Report include:

• Around 24.04 Lakh TB patients have been notified in 2019. This amounts to a 14% increase in TB notification as compared to the year 2018.
• Achieving near-complete on-line notification of TB patients through the NIKSHAY system.
• Reduction in the number of missing cases to 2.9 lakh cases as against more than 10 lakhs in 2017.
• Private sector notifications increased by 35% with 6.78 lakh TB patients notified.
• Due to easy availability of molecular diagnostics, the proportion of children diagnosed with TB increased to 8% in 2019 compared to 6% in 2018.
• Provision of HIV testing for all notified TB patients increased from 67% in 2018 to 81% in 2019.
• Expansion of treatment services has resulted in a 12% improvement in the treatment success rate of notified patients. For 2019 it is 81% compared to 69% in 2018.
• More than 4.5 lakh DOT Centers provide treatment covering almost every village across the country.
• In the categories of larger states with more than 50 lakh population, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh were awarded as best performing States.
• In the category of smaller states with less than 50 lakh population, Tripura and Nagaland were awarded. In the category of Union Territory, Dadara and Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu were chosen as the best performers.

NIKSHAY Expansion

• NIKSHAY also expanded the provision of four Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) schemes of the programme –
  1. Nikshay Poshan Yojana (NPY) to TB patients
  2. The incentive to Treatment Supporters
  3. Incentive to Private Providers and
  4. Transport incentive to TB patients in the notified tribal areas

TB Elimination Goal

The Government of India has set the SDG goal of eliminating TB in the country by 2025, five years ahead of the Global Target.

To align with the ambitious goal, the programme has been renamed from Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) to National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP)’.

Private Sector Involvement

Underscoring the crucial contribution that the private sector can make to the national TB programme by mandatory TB notification and providing quality TB care, with both collaborative and regulatory steps, the country has notified 6,64,584 TB patients in 2019 in the private sector which amounts to a 22% increase in TB notification as compared to the year 2018.