New Delhi, March 20 (ozi news desk): According to a recent study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, India’s tuberculosis (TB) incidence only decreased by 0.5% between 2015 and 2020, failing to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) End-TB milestone for 2020. The WHO’s strategy aims for a 90% reduction in TB deaths and an 80% reduction in the incidence rate by 2030.
However, India’s TB incidence rate in 2020 was estimated to be 213 cases per one lakh population, surpassing the WHO’s milestone figure of 171 per one lakh population. Additionally, deaths due to TB in India in 2020 were estimated to be between 3.5-5 lakh, exceeding the mortality milestone of 2.7-3.2 lakh set for the country.
Despite progress in reducing TB burden globally, the first interim milestones of the WHO End-TB strategy were not achieved in 2020. Among the 204 countries analyzed, only 15 met the TB incidence milestone and 17 met the mortality milestone, with the majority of these countries located in sub-Saharan Africa.
