Notification of TB cases down by 30% in Maha

There has been a 30 per cent drop in the number of Tuberculosis (TB) cases being notified across Maharashtra in the last one year due to the ongoing pandemic.

According to the data provided by the state health department, 2.27lakh cases were notified in 2019 which declined to 1.60 lakh in 2020, moreover between January to April this year 56,000 cases have been notified. State health officials have attributed this drop to private hospitals, who failed to provide data of the TB cases. Most of the private hospitals were converted to Covid care due to which TB cases were lef t undiagnosed.

Around 20,000 new TB cases were recorded before the pandemic started in the city. It reduced to 9,000 between May and July. The numbers had again increased af ter lockdown relaxation -- 13,000 new cases were reported monthly, which further increased to 20,212 cases in December 2020. The numbers declined in the second wave. In Januar y, 16,969 cases were notified in the state which dropped to 10,036 in April.

Dr Archana Patil, director, Family Welfare, Directorate of Health Services, Maharashtra, said in Maharashtra, TB notifications declined to 10,036 patients in April 2021, compared to an average monthly notification of 19,000 patients during pre-COVID times. They conducted a workshop in December last year where they had directed and trained all the staff to notify each TB patient to the state health department.

“Taking cognizance of the impact of COVID-19 on TB services and declining notifications, we have developed and quickly deployed several innovative mitigation strategies to proactively ensure continuity of TB services. Interventions such as door-step delivery of drugs to existing patients, partnerships with private laboratories to support TB diagnosis and community-level engagement, were implemented. Important policies including bi-directional screening were rolled out to ensure every TB case is detected and notified,” she said.