TB treatment success rate rose to 86.9 pc until Dec 2023, highest in 9 years: Sources

New Delhi [India], April 11 (ANI): The tuberculosis treatment success rate has increased to 86.9 per cent until December 2023, which is reportedly the highest in nine years, as per sources.

The Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is striving to eliminate TB from the country by 2025, five years ahead of the 2030 timeline for the achievement of global sustainable development goals related to TB.

According to the sources, however, there was a marginal increase to 85.5 per cent in 2022. “Over the last 9 years, despite one-third of notifications coming from the private sector, the programme was able to sustain a treatment success rate of above 80 per cent. In 2021, the success rate had reached 84 per cent and in 2022, it marginally increased to 85.5 per cent,” sources told ANI.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare implemented the national TB Elimination Programme with five objectives, namely early diagnosis, prompt treatment with quality drugs, engaging with patients seeking care in the private sector, prevention strategies including contact tracing in high-risk and vulnerable populations, airborne infection control and multi-sectoral response for addressing social determinants.

Under the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination, over 1.4 billion people live in more than 800 districts and reporting units and are responsible for carrying out the Government of India’s five-year National Strategic Plans for TB Elimination along with the States/UTs.

The National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination was launched to achieve the target of ending TB by 2025 in mission mode. It is a multi-pronged approach that aims to detect all TB patients, with an emphasis on reaching TB patients seeking care from private providers and undiagnosed TB in high-risk populations.

“The programme has been implementing the four strategic pillars of Detect-Treat-Prevent-Build (DTPB) of the National Strategic Plan 2017-2025, which has led to the scaling up of free, high sensitivity diagnostic tests and algorithms and ensuring free TB drugs for all TB cases,” said a source with knowledge of the National Strategic Plan 2017-2025.