‘India achieves 16% decline in new TB cases since 2015’
India’s efforts to ensure early tuberculosis detection and treatment initiation, along with a host of community engagement efforts has resulted in a decline of 16% in incidence (new TB cases emerging each year) and a 18% reduction in mortality, since 2015.
The incidence rate in India had fallen from 237 per lakh population in 2015 to 199 per lakh population in 2022, while the mortality rate had declined from 28 per lakh population in 2015 to 23 per lakh population in 2022, according to the India TB report 2024 released by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday, stating that the country has set 2025 as the target for eliminating the disease.
Additionally, of all the
TB cases notified in 2023, nearly 32% of notifications came from the private health care sector which is an increase of 17% from the previous year. According to the data released in the report, while the overall notification of TB cases has improved by over 50% in the last nine years on an annual basis, Uttar Pradesh saw the highest jump in notifications (by 21% compared to the previous year).
The Centre added that after the COVID19 pandemic, the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) embarked on a journey towards accelerating TB elimination, guided by the National Strategic Plan 2017–25.
“The NTEP continued providing free diagnostic services, conducting approximately 1.89 crore sputum smear test,” noted the report.
Currently, evidencebased guidelines do not exist with respect to prevention, screening, diagnosis, management, and palliation of lung cancer in India, despite the fact that lung cancer is one of the commonest cancers in India accounting for 10% of total cancer deaths in the country.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), understanding this gap, is now all set to launch a systematic review and metaanalyses which, it notes, will play a crucial role in synthesising existing evidence to inform decisionmaking in the management of lung cancer to guide clinical practice and improve patient outcomes.
The Council has launched an expression of interest (EoI) from re
Currently, evidencebased guidelines do not exist with respect to prevention, screening, and diagnosis of lung cancer.
searchers who are interested in conducting systematic reviews and metaanalyses.
“Prospective applicants will be tasked to conduct systematic reviews/metaanalysis pertaining to the identified review questions (PICOs) and assessing the quality of evidence using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) tool,’’ the ICMR
said, adding that the process of generating such evidence would entail the compilation of systematic reviews from the existing literature, focusing on welldefined review questions.
Grading methodology
“Additionally, the evidence derived from these systematic reviews and metaanalyses will be systematically assessed for its strength utilising the GRADE. This grading methodology will serve to evaluate the quality of evidence, which will subsequently inform the formulation of recommendations following the application of the Evidence to Decision (EtD) framework,’’ noted the ICMR.
The Council also said that depending on the scope of the review, a team might be assigned more than one review question, including prevention, screening, diagnosis etc.
According to the World Health Organisation, lung cancer is a significant public health concern, causing a considerable number of deaths globally. Smoking tobacco (including cigarettes, cigars, and pipes) is the primary risk factor for lung cancer, but it can also affect nonsmokers. Other risk factors include exposure to secondhand smoke, etc.