New Delhi, March 20 (Punjab khabarnama):India’s tuberculosis (TB) incidence dropped marginally by 0.5 per cent between 2015 and 2020 and failed to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) End-TB milestone for 2020, according to new global research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.The WHO End-TB strategy aims for a 90 per cent reduction in TB deaths and an 80 per cent reduction in the incidence rate by 2030, compared to the baseline figures of 2015. The 2020 milestones include a 20 per cent reduction in the TB incidence rate and a 35 per cent reduction in deaths.The latest study estimated that the incidence of TB across all ages in India was 213 cases per one lakh population in 2020, well above the WHO’s milestone figure (for India) of 171 per one lakh population. Deaths due to the bacterial infectious disease in the same year were estimated to be between 3.5-5 lakh, again much above the mortality milestone of 2.7-3.2 lakh set for India.The study comes ahead of World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.Despite accelerated progress in reducing TB burden over the past decade, the world failed to attain the first interim milestones of the WHO End-TB strategy in 2020, said the researchers forming the Global Burden Disease (GBD) 2021 Tuberculosis Collaborators. The pace of decline has also differed across age groups, with adults aged 50 years and above having the slowest progress.Of the 204 countries analysed by the team, 15 met the 2020 TB incidence milestone, while 17 met the mortality milestone. Of the 15, 11 were in sub-Saharan Africa, the researchers said.Novel case-finding interventions in countries like Nigeria, Tanzania, Cameroon and Kenya helped reduce incidence, and were further supported by improved drug coverage in treating HIV across many countries in the sub-Saharan African region, they said.
