• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting to review the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP).

• He lauded early detection and treatment of TB patients in 2024 and said it should be scaled up nationwide.

• India’s goal to eliminate TB by 2025 is one of the world’s most ambitious health missions. 

• Under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), India has strengthened its TB response with advanced diagnostics, innovative policies, private sector partnerships, and a patient-first approach.

• Despite global efforts, TB remains a major public health challenge worldwide, with India bearing the highest burden. Understanding both the global and national estimates is key to gauging the scale of the disease and the urgency of India’s elimination mission.

• In 2020, the government of India renamed the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) as the National TB Elimination Program (NTEP). 

• This reflects India’s goal to eliminate TB by 2025, five years before the global target of 2030. 

• The PM reviewed the recently-concluded 100-day TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, covering high-focus districts, during which 12.97 crore vulnerable individuals were screened and 7.19 lakh cases, including 2.85 lakh asymptomatic, detected.

• PM Modi noted the encouraging findings of the WHO Global TB Report 2024, that affirmed an 18 per cent reduction in TB incidence (from 237 to 195 per lakh population between 2015 and 2023) at double the global pace, 21 per cent decline in TB mortality (from 28 to 22 per lakh population), and 85 per cent treatment coverage, reflecting the programme’s growing reach and effectiveness.

• PM Modi stressed the need to analyse the trends of TB patients based on urban or rural areas as well as their occupations.

• This will help identify groups that need early testing and treatment, especially workers in construction, mining, textile mills and similar fields.

Key facts about TB:

• Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. It can spread when people who are sick with TB expel bacteria into the air – for example, by coughing.

• Every year, 10 million people fall ill with TB. Despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from TB each year.

• TB is the leading cause of death of people with HIV and also a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance.

• Most people who develop the disease are adults.

• TB is preventable and curable. About 85 per cent of people who develop TB disease can be successfully treated with a 4/6-month drug regimen. Treatment has the added benefit of curtailing onward transmission of infection.

• Economic and financial barriers can affect access to health care for TB diagnosis and completion of TB treatment; about half of TB patients and their households face catastrophic total costs due to TB disease. 

• Progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), better levels of social protection and multisectoral action on broader TB determinants are all essential to reduce the burden of TB disease.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)