Annual TB Report 2020

Annual TB Report 2020

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare released the annual TB Report 2020, in the presence of Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MOS (HFW), through a virtual event. They also released a Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) report, a manual on Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to TB patients under the NIKSHAY system, a Training Module, and the quarterly newsletter NIKSHAY Patrika.

The key achievements listed in the Report include:

• Around 24.04 Lakh TB patients have been notified in 2019. This amounts to a 14% increase in TB notification as compared to the year 2018.
• Achieving near-complete on-line notification of TB patients through the NIKSHAY system.
• Reduction in the number of missing cases to 2.9 lakh cases against more than 10 lakhs in 2017.
• Private sector notifications increased by 35% with 6.78 lakh TB patients notified.
• Due to the easy availability of molecular diagnostics, the proportion of children diagnosed with TB increased to 8% in 2019 compared to 6% in 2018.
• Provision of HIV testing for all notified TB patients increased from 67% in 2018 to 81% in 2019.
• The expansion of treatment services has resulted in a 12% improvement in the treatment success rate of notified patients.  For 2019 it is 81% compared to 69% in 2018.
• More than 4.5 lakh DOT Centers provide treatment covering almost every village across the country.
• NIKSHAY also expanded the provision of four Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) schemes of the program –
• Nikshay Poshan Yojana (NPY) to TB patients
• The incentive to Treatment Supporters
• The incentive to Private Providers and
• Transport incentive to TB patients in the notified tribal areas

1. Underscoring the crucial contribution that the private sector can make to the national TB program by mandatory TB notification and providing quality TB care, he added that with both collaborative and regulatory steps, the country has notified 6,64,584 TB patients in 2019 in the private sector which amounts to a 22% increase in TB notification as compared to the year 2018.
2. The salient feature of this year is that for the first time Central TB Division (CTD) introduced a quarterly ranking on TB elimination efforts by all the states and UTs. Treatment linkage of drug-resistant TB patients, HIV testing of TB patients, Nutritional assistance to TB patients in the form of NIKSHAY Poshan Yojana (DBT), Universal Drug Susceptibility Testing (UDST) coverage among notified TB patients, TB Preventive Therapy (TPT) coverage and Financial expenditure are included in the assessment criteria
3. In the categories of larger states with more than 50 lakh population, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh were awarded as best performing States. In the category of smaller states with less than 50 lakh population, Tripura and Nagaland were awarded. In the category of Union Territory, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu were chosen as the best performers.

Source: PIB