In 2020, there were 18.05 TB notifications, which was a fall of 24% from 2019 due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic, according to the India TB report released by the Health Ministry on Wednesday.
The report said between January and February 2020, the notifications were on an upward trajectory, with 6% more cases reported in the same period in 2019.
“As a result of the lockdown, notifications in the public sector fell by 38% and 44% in the private sector in April and May. Of the reported 24.04 lakh TB cases in 2019, treatment success was 82%, mortality rate was 4%, 4% patients were lost to follow up and treatment failure and regimen change after initiation of treatment was about 3%,’’ said the report.
It said the approved budgets toward the programme have increased substantially, from ₹640 crore in 2016-17 to ₹3,333 crores in 2019-20, however, there was a fall in budget to ₹3,110 crore in 2020-21.
As per the report over 95% of all cases reported were initiated on treatment in 2020 and the treatment success rate for patients reported in 2019 was 82% (83% among patients in the public sector and 79% in the private).
The report said 20,892 (42%) of patients were initiated on a shorter MDR-TB regimen at the time of diagnosis. “This is a significant decline from 2019 [71% were initiated on the shorter MDR-TB regimen]. In 2019, newer drug regimens were introduced for MDR-TB patients. In 2020, over 20,000 patients were initiated on Bedaquiline and 652 patients [including paediatric TB patients in the age group of 6-17] were initiated on Delamanid,’’ said the report.
