Tuberculosis in India: To eliminate Tuberculosis (TB) in India, health experts have suggested that the Centre should invest in finding active TB cases. For this purpose, they said the government should screen everyone and extend financial and medical support to communities.

In an interaction with The Statesman, Dr (Prof) Guy B Marks, Interim Executive Director, The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and Dr. Kuldeep Singh Sachdeva, Regional Director, The Union South-East Asia, shared their viewpoints on the elimination of TB in India.

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Established in 1920, The Union is committed to creating a healthier world for all, free of tuberculosis and lung disease.

“In the Indian setting, the government should invest in active TB case finding, screening everyone, extending financial and medical support to the communities to eliminate TB,” Prof Marks said.

He said, “TB is a public disease, and not private because of being infectious. If you are a diabetic, it’s your problem because you can’t spread it to the community, but if you have TB, you can spread it across unknowingly because it is easily transmitted. Thus, this is the responsibility of society as a whole to work towards its elimination.”

Talking about the solution and adding his viewpoint on the elimination of TB in India, Dr. Sachdeva said, “What is missing in India is the process of ‘Home to test and Home to treat’, which can be carried out through hand-held devices like X-Ray machines. And the active case finding in communities, and identifying the pockets where the number of cases is high, also may be instrumental towards the elimination of TB in India. Active case finding is very important as it helps in breaking the chain of transmission.”

Talking about the barriers to TB elimination, Prof Marks said, “There are so many barriers to TB elimination such as community and political barriers in high-burden settings, the stigma of TB, and insufficient recognition of the communal nature of airborne infectious diseases. As TB is a hidden disease and infects the entire community, we need to screen everyone as we don’t know who is infected and who is not. Active TB case finding is a major challenge, so the government and people have to come together in this expedition.”

Elaborating on the causes of TB elimination, Dr. Sachdeva, said, “Those who are malnourished have 2-3 times more chances of getting infected with TB. Also, people with comorbidities-like diabetes, and damaged lung HIV infection are vulnerable to TB infection. Likewise, indoor air pollution and smoking increase 2-4 times chances of TB infection. These aspects also need to be addressed while talking about TB elimination.”

Speaking about the solutions to TB, especially in high-burden countries, Prof Marks suggested, “To stop TB, it is necessary to interrupt the chain of transmission by finding and treating all people who are living in the community with undiagnosed and untreated active TB affecting the lungs. For this, the most effective strategy is to focus on active, community-wide screening, along with effective treatment, and include point-of-care testing. Also, to achieve this goal, we need to address the stigma of TB through community-wide education involving local thought leaders because people need to be aware that they are not only helping themselves but also helping their family, neighbours, workmates and community by preventing TB infection in others.”

Giving an Indian perspective to the efforts on elimination of TB, Dr. Sachdeva said, “According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 4,100 people lose their lives to TB every day, and the Global TB Report 2021 estimates that with nearly 26 lakh TB cases, India has 26 percent of all global and multi-drug resistant TB cases. We have come a long way towards TB elimination in India as we have the tools of a drug, and diagnosis to eliminate TB, and over 90 percent of treatment for TB has been done. Till 2009, it took 2-3 years for TB treatment, but now it takes only 6-9 months for the treatment. We have success stories of TB elimination in India as Lakshadweep (UT) and the district of Budgam (J&K) were declared TB-free last year.”