In a landmark moment in India’s TB elimination efforts, the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda launched the intensified 100 Day TB elimination campaign in the presence of Shri Nayab Singh Saini, Chief Minister, Haryana, and Smt. Arti Singh Rao, Health Minister of Haryana, in Panchkula, Haryana. Shri Prataprao Jadhav and Smt. Anupriya Patel, Union Ministers of State for Health and Family Welfare also joined the event virtually. The goal of this campaign, which will be implemented in 347 districts across the country is to find and treat missing TB cases, especially in high-risk groups, and reduce TB deaths significantly
Addressing the gathering, the Union Health Minister highlighted the government’s unwavering commitment to end TB and stated that this campaign is launched with the intention to give a new momentum to the goal of TB-Mukt Bharat (TB free India). Noting that this will be a focused campaign of 100 days, he stated that the effort will be to quickly detect and treat TB patients in the 347 most affected districts.
Shri Nadda highlighted the long struggle that the country has faced in its fight against TB. “There was a time when TB was considered as a ‘slow death’ and even family members suffering from TB were separated and isolated to prevent its spread. And since 1962, there have been many campaigns against TB, but, in 2018 the Hon’ble Prime Minister made the vision to end TB much before the 2030 deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The Union Health Minister informed that many new strategies were taken to make TB services patient-friendly and decentralized. He noted that today TB is detected early, thanks to the network of over 1.7 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs across the country. He also highlighted that the government has significantly scaled up diagnostic services by increasing the number of laboratories from 120 in 2014 to 8,293 laboratories today. “The Union Government introduced daily regimen of drugs sensitive TB including a new shorter and more effective regimen which has improved the TB treatment success rate to 87%”, he further stated.
Shri Nadda highlighted that Ni-kshay support worth Rs 3,338 crore has been provided through direct benefit transfer to over 1.17 crore TB patients. He also stated that the government recently increased the Ni-kshay poshan amount from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 and added energy boosters for the nourishment support for TB patients.
Shri Nadda informed that the government has now made it mandatory for even private practitioners to notify any new TB patients so that their treatment can be followed up immediately. “This might look like a small step but it has led to an 8-fold increase in the rate of TB notifications in the private sector”, he stated.
He also highlighted that the rate of TB decline in India has doubled from 8.3% in 2015 to 17.7% today which is much ahead of the global average. He also informed that deaths due to TB has also reduced significantly in India by 21.4% in the last 10 years.
The Union Health Minister ended his address by encouraging all the stakeholders to reiterate their commitment to end TB.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Nayab Singh Saini expressed his elation at the fact that the intensified 100-day TB campaign has started from Haryana and assured that Haryana would strive to play a prominent role in the fight against TB in India. He said that India has fought against TB through the medium of successful campaigns like Jan Bhagidari, Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana, Fit India and Khelo India which are admired across the world.
Shri Nayab said that the government is working on “4Ts” to eliminate TB which are test, track, treat and technology. He noted that intensified testing in the last 10 years has led to the discovery of new TB cases which are being treated for free. He urged everyone to upload the data of every new TB case in the Ni-kshay portal which also provides timely updates to TB patients. He also stated that the government is working with NGOs and civil society to further bolster its TB elimination efforts.
Smt. Punya Salila Srivastava, Union Health Secretary assured the government’s commitment to ensure that there would be no shortage of either medicines or consumables. She appealed to all sections of civil society to participate actively and make the campaign a success.
During the launch event, Shri Nadda unveiled national guidelines for the implementation of the new drug-resistant TB regimen, BPaLM. These guidelines are designed to standardize and streamline the administration of this advanced treatment, which offers improved outcomes for patients struggling with drug-resistant TB. Additionally, he launched campaign materials, including a comprehensive concept note and Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) resources in various regional languages. The Union Health Minister also honored TB Champions and Ni-kshay Mitras, and distributed food baskets during the event.