There are millions suffering from tuberculosis in India. With incidence of multidrug- resistant and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis on the rise, TB patients need extra care in terms of medicine, nutrition and support from the society.
But unfortunately, many don’t even get the right treatment. This study published in PlOS journal in 2016 found that of 1,938,027 TB patients evaluated at government health facilities in 2013, only about 1,049,237 (39%) were treated effectively, meaning that they didn’t have recurrence of TB for one year after treatment. India has the highest burden of tuberculosis in the world with one in every four TB patient in the world from India. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that India has nearly 1 million “missing” TB patients, who have not even been reported to the national TB program and who, therefore, may not have received effective TB care.
The study underlines the need for using new TB diagnostic tests for some forms of TB such as smear-negative TB and multi-drug-resistant TB to improve patient care.
Besides, there is little information about the treatment outcomes for TB patients receiving care in the private sector, and that means it is difficult to get a grip on the actual prevalence of the disease in India.
