The number of tuberculosis cases reported in the limits of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) witnessed an improvement last year with the city registering a reduction of more than two thousand cases in 2024, informed senior officials of the health wing of the civic body today.

According to the deputy mayor, Atin Ghosh, around 12,213 TB patients were diagnosed and treated under KMC in 2024. Of the total, 5,284 private patients were notified by the KMC. As pointed out by the officials of the health department of the municipal corporation, the figures reported were better than the previous year of 2023 when more than 14,800 TB cases were reported. Apart from this, in terms of drug-resistant tuberculosis, the KMC is said to have treated 526 cases of DRTB patients.

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As elaborated by Mr Ghosh, who is also the member-mayor-in-council for Health in KMC, the civic body which had undertaken an intensive TB elimination programme, screened around eight lakh citizens over a period of 100 days as part of the ‘100 days Campaign for TB Mukto Bangla.’

The municipal corporation is also said to have given Rs 1.61 crore as direct benefits to the tuberculosis patients in its jurisdiction in 2024.

Earlier, the KMC used to receive Rs 1.2 crores for the TB elimination programme. However, the central government is said to have stopped allocating funds for the elimination programme for TB since the past two to three years. Ideally, the Centre and the state share the cost in a 60:40 ratio. However, the entire amount is now being borne by the state government, according to senior health department officials. “This is a joint programme of the Centre and the state where both have responsibilities in the ratio 60:40. Since the past two to three years, the Centre has stopped allocating funds that were given to us under the National Health Mission,” claimed the deputy mayor. “Stopping funds for medical benefits is very unfateful. The central government is to answer why fund allocation for tuberculosis, which is the most difficult disease and in which many people die, has been stopped,” he added.

The KMC has set up urban primary health centres (UPHC) in all its 144 wards along with 10 chest clinics. As rued by the deputy mayor, the civic body’s plan of setting up 30 more such UPHCs is getting delayed as the department is not getting funds from the Centre.