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New Delhi: The National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) was able to notify 25.5 lakh and 26.07 lakh tuberculosis cases in 2023 and 2024 respectively — the highest ever — and is steadily progressing towards the goal of eliminating the deadly disease by 2025, Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said on Wednesday.
Patel, who inaugurated the India Innovation Summit ‘Pioneering Solutions to End TB’ at Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre here, highlighted India’s progress in TB control and the pivotal role of innovation in this mission.
“Under the pathbreaking leadership of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s public health landscape has seen a remarkable transformation over the past decade and many of you have played a critical role in ensuring innovations and quality healthcare services reach the last mile,” the minister said.
Patel underscored the progress of the ongoing TB Mukt Bharat- – 100 Days Intensified Campaign. Launched on December 7, 2024, the campaign covers 455 selected high-priority districts and involves a comprehensive strategy to mobilise resources, raise awareness and intensify actions against TB across all prioritised districts.
The campaign activities involve active TB case finding in vulnerable populations, early diagnosis, prompt treatment initiation and linkage to nutritional care.
The report of the campaign will be released on World TB Day on 24th March 2025.
Underlining the new innovations rolled out under the programme, Patel stated that ICMR has validated three indigenous handheld X ray devices which make it possible to reach vulnerable population groups for TB screening.
“Hand-held devices offer advantages of low weight, portability, and low radiation exposure and are being used in the 100-day accelerated programme.”
She also added that ICMR partnered with the Institute of Plasma Research, Ahmedabad, to develop DeepCXR, a tool for artificial intelligence-based reporting chest X-ray films.
“The AI tools are expected to be a game-changer in detecting presumptive TB patients and quick initiation of treatment.
“ICMR also validated CyTb skin test for detection of latent TB infection, developed by Serum Institute of India Ltd. against Interferon gamma release assay (IGRA), which is the preferred test for latent TB detection. However, IGRA is expensive and it may not be feasible to be introduced in resource-limited countries. Overall performance of CyTb was better than the currently used tuberculin skin test,” she said.
Patel added that the ICMR conducted a multicentric validation of PathoDetectTM, an indigenous molecular diagnostic NAAT test which can perform 32 tests simultaneously, detects MTB complex and first line drug resistance to rifampicin (RIF) and Isoniazid (INH) simultaneously as a one step process. Overall, the performance of PathoDetectTM was comparable to other molecular assays.
Deployment of this test in the 100-day programme, along with the already available TruNat test, has enhanced the capacity of molecular diagnosis of TB and early detection of drug resistance.
Moreover, the Quantiplus MTB FAST Detection Kit developed by Huwel Lifesciences is the first in the world indigenous open system RTPCR kits developed in India and validated by ICMR.
In comparison to the gold standard liquid culture, sensitivity of the kit is 86 per cent and specificity is 96 per cent. These kits are likely to be low-cost and have the potential to expand the outreach of TB molecular testing, including more than 3300 RTPCR machines used during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
“Health Technology Assessment India under the Department of Health Research has assessed TB health technologies like Truenat for TB diagnosis, BPAL/BPALM regime for MDR TB, Techo plus for tracking and managing TB health services, AI enabled chest X-ray diagnosis and TMEAD an adherence monitoring device for TB treatment,” she added.
Patel said that “innovations are crucial for TB elimination, offering faster and more accurate diagnostics, improved treatment regimens, and better prevention strategies”.
Use of digital health, artificial intelligence, data collection and health promotion will also play a critical role in reaching the “missing millions” of people with TB who go undiagnosed, and therefore untreated, each year, she said.
Highlighting the achievements of the NTEP, Patel stated that “the Program is steadily progressing towards the goal of eliminating TB by 2025. The number of missing cases has been reduced from 15 lakh in 2015 to 2.5 lakhs in 2023. The programme was able to notify 25.5 lakh TB and 26.07 lakh cases in 2023 and 2024-the highest ever.”
Citing the WHO’s Global TB Report 2024, Patel said that the incidence rate of TB in India has shown a 17.7 per cent decline from 237 per lakh population in 2015 to 195 per lakh population in 2023.
“TB deaths have reduced by 21.4 per cent from 28 per lakh population in 2015 to 22 per lakh population in 2023,” she said.
She also said that “TB treatment coverage in India increased by 32 per cent in last eight years from 53 per cent in 2015 to 85 per cent in 2023.”
Patel also highlighted the new initiatives under NTEP. She said that “a shorter and safer oral Bedaquiline-containing drug-resistant TB treatment regimen has been rolled out across all states and UTs that has improved treatment success rates of drug-resistant TB patients from 68 per cent in 2020 to 75 per cent in 2022”.
A more efficacious treatment regimen, mBPaL (Bedaquiline, Pretomanid, Linezolid (300mg) has also been introduced for drug-resistant TB which is 80 per cent more efficacious for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) and will reduce treatment duration to 6 months, she said.
Patel also highlighted the Energy Dense Nutritional Support (EDNS), offered to under-nourished TB patients during the first 2 months of their treatment along with drugs.
She also spoke about the Ni-kshay Mitra Initiative that was launched with the objectives to provide additional support to TB patients in order to improve treatment outcomes, augment community involvement and leverage Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
Patel said that “this initiative was launched to bring together people from all backgrounds into a ‘Jan Andolan‘ and escalate the progress toward TB elimination”.
She said that the government has doubled the financial assistance under Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana (NPY) for nutritional support to TB patients from Rs 500 per month/per patient to Rs 1,000 per month per patient effective from 1st November 2024.
The Ni-kshay Mitra Initiative has also been expanded wherein food baskets to TB patients and their household contacts are being provided.
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