After WHO TB report: India performed better than others, says govt

“The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken note of the WHO Global TB Report 2022, released on October 27, 2022 and has clarified that India has, in fact, performed far better on major metrics as compared to other countries over time,” said a ministry statement.

Responding to the WHO’s ‘Global TB Report 2022’ which has counted India among eight nations accounting for two-thirds of the total patient count, the Union health ministry said on Friday that the country had performed better on several counts, including case notification.

The WHO report mentioned that the number of people newly diagnosed with TB across the world fell from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020. (HT File Photo)

“The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken note of the WHO Global TB Report 2022, released on October 27, 2022 and has clarified that India has, in fact, performed far better on major metrics as compared to other countries over time,” said a ministry statement.

“India’s TB incidence for the year 2021 is 210 per 100,000 population – compared to the baseline year of 2015 (incidence was 256 per lakh of population in India); there has been an 18% decline which is 7 percentage points better than the global average of 11%. These figures also place India at the 36th position in terms of incidence rates (from largest to smallest incidence numbers),” the statement added.

The WHO report mentioned that the number of people newly diagnosed with TB across the world fell from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020. There was a partial recovery to 6.4 million in 2021, but this was still well below pre-pandemic levels.

India was among the three countries — the other two are Indonesia and the Philippines — that accounted for most of the reduction in 2020 (67% of the global total). They made partial recoveries in 2021, but still accounted for 60% of the global reduction compared with 2019, the report pointed out.

Underreporting is still a big concern globally, the report said, but more so in India.

The report also found that ten countries collectively accounted for 75% of the global gap between estimated TB incidence and the reported number of people newly diagnosed with the disease. The top five contributors were India (24%), Indonesia (13%), the Philippines (10%), Pakistan (6.6%) and Nigeria (6.3%).

According to the health ministry’s statement, India was able to successfully offset the disruptions caused due to the ongoing pandemic through the introduction of critical interventions in 2020 and 2021 which led to the National TB Elimination Programme notifying over 2.14 million TB cases – 18% higher than 2020.

The health ministry attributed the success to an array of forward-looking measures implemented by the programme through the years, such as the mandatory notification policy to ensure all cases are reported to the government.

“Further, intensified door-to-door Active Case Finding drives to screen patients and ensure no household is missed has been a pillar of the Programme. In 2021, over 22 crore people were screened for TB. The aim has been to find and detect more cases to arrest onwards transmission of the disease in the community which has contributed to the decline in incidence. For this purpose, India has also scaled up diagnostic capability to strengthen detection efforts,” read the statement.

Prior to the publication of the global report, the statement said, it communicated to WHO that the ministry already initiated domestic studies to arrive at a more accurate estimate of incidence and mortality rates in a systematic manner, and India’s data will be provided after conclusion of studies in the early part of 2023.

“The WHO has also acknowledged the Health Ministry’s position on this and noted in the Report that estimates of TB incidence and mortality in India for 2000–2021 are interim and subject to finalization, in consultation with India’s Ministry of Health & Family Welfare,” it added.

The results of health ministry’s study, initiated by the Central TB Division, will be available in approximately six months’ time and shared further with WHO, the statement said.

According to the statement, these steps are in line with India conducting its own National Prevalence Survey to assess the true TB burden in the country – the world’s largest such survey ever conducted.