Tuberculosis Eradication

RNTCP is aware of the study. As per the study, modelling was done and forecasted the percentage of MDR tuberculosis among incident cases of tuberculosis to increase, reaching 12·4% (95% prediction interval 9·4–16·2) in India by 2040. However, based on data from the National Drug Resistance Survey 2015-16, among all TB, MDR-TB is 6.2% which is in line with global average.

The Government has taken up many certain steps in order to tackle the problem of TB by 2025:

-Early diagnosis of all the TB patients, prompt treatment with quality assured daily treatment regimen along with suitable patient support systems to promote adherence to prevent the development of drug resistance among any patient. To identify the drug resistance at early stage, all TB patient are being screened for detection of resistance under Universal Drug Susceptible Testing (U-DST).

– Revised guidelines for Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant TB (PMDT) are being implemented since December 2017.

-Increase in diagnostic and management capacity for early detection and consequent earlier initiation of treatment. This will aid in decreasing mortality and cutting down transmission of the infection.

The country has 1180 functional CBNAAT sites, 89 Culture and Drug Susceptibility Testing (C-DST) laboratories certified in various technologies for drug resistance-TB detection.

Newer evidence-based regimens have been introduced to improve the treatment outcomes of drug resistance TB patients.

• The Shorter MDR Regimen for MDR/RR TB patients (9-11 months of regimen instead of 24 months of conventional regimen)
• Newer drugs (Bedaquiline) containing regimen has also been introduced country-wide under the program and made accessible to all districts during 2018.
• Newer drugs (Delamanid) containing regimen has been introduced in 7 states.

– Various interventions like Integrated mechanism for management of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs), provision of patients & family counselling at the time of diagnosis and during the course of treatment, airborne infection control as well as grievance redressal mechanism have been introduced to improve patient compliance.

-The Nikshay Poshan Yojana provides 500 INR monthly to all TB notified TB patients in order to provide nutritional support and aid in the treatment of TB.

-Private sector engagement is being promoted to reach out to all patients who are seeking treatment in the private sector and efforts are being made to provide them all diagnostic, treatment and care facilities, including public health action such as counselling, nutritional support, contact tracing etc.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha here today.