Eradication of TB: Telangana government struggles to meet yearly targets

Ensuring private healthcare establishments notify TB cases is a perennial difficulty to deal with for Health Department in State

Hyderabad: Notification of tuberculosis (TB) cases is a major obstacle for eradication of the disease in Telangana State. As a result, the Health Department in-charge of the TB eradication programme in Telangana is struggling to meet its yearly targets.

In 2024, between January and October, a total of 62,722 TB positive cases were reported while last year 74, 994 were reported in Telangana State, TB reporting data presented in Lok Sabha by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, J P Nadda on Friday, said.

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While there is a months left i.e. till December, 2024, for the TB department to meet its targets, the fact remains that ensuring private healthcare establishments notify TB cases is a perennial difficulty to deal with for the TB Health Department in Telangana State.

Based on the updated TB reporting data (till December 13, 2024) in the Nikshay portal, which was not part of the data presented in Lok Sabha, the overall target for Hyderabad this year was 10, 050 TB cases out of which 7,498 were reported, indicating a 14 per cent deficit.

The drop in reporting of TB cases, based on the Nikshay portal, is consistent across all the neighboring districts of Hyderabad. In Ranga Reddy district, this year’s target for TB cases was 2,650 of which 1,313 cases have been reported, a drop of nearly 50 per cent. In Medchal-Malkajgiri, the target was to report 2,850 cases of which 1,991 cases have been reported, which is a 14 per cent drop.

Is TB eradication in India possible by 2025?
Answering to this query raised in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Union Minister for Health JP Nadda said that the incidence rate of TB in India has shown 17.7 per cent decline from 237 positive cases per 1, 00, 000 population in 2015 to 195 in 1, 00, 000 population in 2023. Overall, in India, TB deaths have reduced by 21.4 per cent from 28 lakh population in 2015 to 22 lakh population in 2023.