New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a meeting on Tuesday to assess the progress of the tuberculosis elimination campaign. Union Health Minister JP Nadda and other leaders attended.
The Government of India has implemented various focused strategies under its National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) to tackle this significant burden.
These key initiatives under NTEP aim to strengthen diagnosis, treatment, and prevention efforts, accelerating progress toward a TB-free India.
In 2020, the Government of India renamed the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) the National TB Elimination Program (NTEP).
This reflects India’s goal to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, five years before the global target of 2030, according to the release.
According to WHO’s Global TB Report, India has made significant progress in fighting tuberculosis. Under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), the incidence rate of TB cases has dropped by nearly 17.7 per cent, from 237 cases per 1 lakh people in 2015 to 195 in 2023.
TB-related deaths have also reduced, falling from 28 to 22 per 1 lakh people during the same period, as stated in the release earlier.
The NTEP follows the National Strategic Plan (2017-2025), focusing on four key actions: Detect – Treat – Prevent – Build (DTPB) to control and eliminate TB in India.
To eliminate TB by 2025, the NTEP programme achieved the highest-ever number of case notifications, reporting 25.5 lakh TB cases in 2023 and 26.07 lakh cases in 2024. It is the first-ever Indigenous TB burden mathematical model that estimates state-wise TB.
The programme also provided incentives for ASHAS, TB Champions & Caregivers, thus strengthening patient support systems. The programme focused on the high-risk group and found 3 lakh additional cases via house-to-house screening.
560 colleges supported TB detection & research, also regular surveys, drug sales tracking, and under-reporting assessments conducted, also collaboration with ministries, industries, NGOS & technical bodies also done, as stated in a press release.
