Geneva: India is the sole country in the world to have developed its own mechanism for estimating its tuberculosis (TB) burden as it strives to reduce the disease by 2025, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday, May 25.

Addressing at a Quad Plus side event on tuberculosis during the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Mandaviya also revealed that the nation had seen a 13% decrease in tuberculosis incidence from 2015 to 2022, above the global reduction rate of 10%. In addition, compared to the global reduction rate of 5.9 percent, tuberculosis mortality in India has fallen by 15% over the same time period.

Mandaviya said, India is the only nation in the world to have created its own system for calculating its TB load. India can now estimate the true burden of the disease well before the yearly World Health Organisation report by using a mathematical model based on local evidence

According to a release here, the minister stressed the importance of the upcoming UN meeting on tuberculosis slated for September as a chance to assess the group progress made towards ending TB in his speech. He lauded India for its commitment to eradicating tuberculosis by 2025, five years earlier than the UN Sustainable Development Goal.

In order to find all unidentified cases and reach the "unreached," India has brought diagnostics and treatment to patients at the last mile, according to Mandaviya. ''To ensure universal health coverage to each and every patient, we have established over 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres that offer TB diagnostics and care to all patients, along with a host of other primary healthcare services,'' Mandaviya said. This has helped people who live in difficult-to-reach areas of our nation, assuring universal health coverage even there,'' he said.

Mandaviya also emphasised India's effective partnership with the private sector, which allowed TB patients to receive great care from their preferred hospitals, clinics, and medical professionals. As a result, over the past nine years, the number of notifications from the private sector has surged more than sevenfold, according to the statement. In order to combat the stigma attached to TB, Mandaviya drew attention to the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (PMTBMBA), an innovative community involvement programme in India. This campaign, started by President Droupadi Murmu, attempts to assist TB patients as they undergo treatment. According to the statement, the programme, which relies on "Ni-kshay mitras" or donors, has attracted a lot of support. Nearly 78,000 of these donors have pledged to help about a million patients, raising an estimated USD 146 million annually.

Since its launch in 2018, the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana project has spent more than USD 244 million providing monthly nutritional support to over 75 lakh persons receiving TB treatment through Direct Benefit Transfer. The minister also stressed the critical importance of creating a potent vaccine in the fight against tuberculosis.

"To eradicate this disease, global cooperation must increase in order to guarantee equal access to the most advanced diagnostic and therapeutic alternatives. We must develop patient-centered, cutting-edge methods for TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment if we are to meet the UN high-level meeting targets for eradicating TB by 2030. In addition to learning from other situations, India is dedicated to sharing its lessons with the world.

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