India will eliminate TB by end of this year: Nadda

INDIA will successfully eliminate tuberculosis by the end of this year, five years ahead of the global target, Union health minister J P Nadda said Friday.

- KAVITA BAJELI-DATT @New Delhi

Inaugurating the ninth National Summit on Good and Replicable Practices and Innovation in Public Healthcare System in Puri, Odisha, the minister said India, which tops the list of 30 countries with high-burden TB cases, has witnessed a noteworthy 17.7% decline in tuberculosis incidence from 2015 to 2023, a rate that is over twice the global average decline of 8.3%.

Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global TB Report 2024, which had said that India's TB incidence reduced from 237 per 1,00,000 population in 2015 to 195 in 2023, while TB mortality rate decreased from 28 to 22 in the same period, the health minister said despite the COVID-19 setback, India has not diluted its TB eradication target.