Bihar: Covid hits tuberculosis case notifications

The tuberculosis (TB) elimination programme has been hit like most other national health mission programmes during the coronavirus pandemic

The tuberculosis (TB) elimination programme has been hit like most other national health mission programmes during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Bihar could notify only 98,913 cases of TB in 2020 as against 1.22 lakh notified in 2019. As per the Centre’s estimation, 153 per 1 lakh population are infected by TB. That would leave Bihar with a TB burden of 1.83 lakh given the fact that its population is estimated to be 12 crore.

However, executive director of the State Health Society, Bihar, Manoj Kumar, said Bihar had done well than the rest of the country in terms of notifying TB cases. “Bihar’s shortfall in notification was 18% against the average national shortfall of 25% in 2020-21. This was because our focus never went off TB even during the pandemic,” he added.

Kumar, however, stressed on expeditious detection of missing TB cases.

The state’s annualised TB case notification rate, which had gone up to 100 per lakh population in 2019, had also slipped to 80 in 2020 that was at par with the notification rate in 2016.

The primary reason for low notification was shortage of resources. Even the existing resources, both in terms of manpower and machinery, were redeployed to contain the pandemic.

“We are, however, trying to get it (the programme) back on track, with healthcare workers reaching out to the homes of TB patients during the pandemic,” said Dr BK Mishra, state programme officer for tuberculosis.

Most of the existing 70 CBNAAT machines, used for testing TB samples, were redeployed for Covid-19 testing.

Health minister Mangal Pandey, who dedicated 37 TrueNAT machines, a diagnostic tool for TB, expressed unhappiness over the low testing rate. He called upon his officials to increase testing and participation in the TB control programme.

He accepted that notification was an issue and the state was unable to identify the actual number of TB patients.

Speaking at a function to mark the world TB day on Wednesday, he said the social stigma associated with the disease was also responsible for the low notification, as patients feared being ostracised.He, however, said that all vacant positions in the TB unit would be filled up in next two months.

The minister also inaugurated the interactive voice recording system (IVRS) for sensitising patients whose bank accounts were not linked, for transfer of nutrition allowance of ₹500 per patient per month during the treatment period.

Dr Ashutosh Sharan from East Champaran, Dr Rajesh Kumar Ranjan, Dr Anil Kumar and Dr Subodh Kumar (all from Siwan), Dr SS Nandi (Samastipur), Dr Ashok Kumar Singh (Kaimur), Dr Prakash Chandra Verma (Lakhisarai) were among some doctors felicitated for their contribution in elimination of TB.