PM sets 2025 deadline for TB- mukt India
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday set a deadline of 2025 to free India from tuberculosis (TB), five years ahead of the global deadline set by World Health Organisation (WHO).
“The deadline to eradicate TB from the world has been set at 2030. But I declare that India would be free from tuberculosis five years ahead by 2025. The target is set,” said Modi in his inaugural address at Delhi End TB Summit at Vigyan Bhawan.
India is confident of achieving its target of 2025 as the government is following a new approach with multi-sectoral interventions, said the Prime Minister.
The disease was declared as an emergency 25 years ago, and since then several countries have tried different measures to check the disease but with limited success, and there was a need to change the approach of tackling the problem advocating for a more holistic approach, he added,
“India has launched a new approach and strategy to eradicate TB from the country. The National Strategic Plan is fully operation,” he said.
In 2016, the number of tuberculosis-related deaths in India was more than 400,000, about one-third of the total number of global toll.
Modi said immunisation in India had been going on for 30-35 years but at the prevailing rate of one percent in 2014, another 40 years would have been required. “In the last threeand-a-half years, the rate has gone up to six percent. By next year, I am confident of achieving 90 percent immunisation in the country.”
NEW DELHI: The government is pulling out all the stops to eliminate tuberculosis by 2025 --- five years ahead of the globally set target of 2030. As the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is ready with a robust roadmap to make India a TB free nation by 2025, other stakeholders have opined that target is achievable.
The Health Ministry, which is led by JP Nadda, has rolled out new National Strategic Plan (NSP) to end TB by 2025 which has been appreciated by the global community as a model plan for combating tuberculosis.
In his inaugural address at the launch of Delhi END-TB Summit, Nadda said, “We are using information technology (IT) tools for monitoring the programme and treatment adherence. Community engagement is the hallmark and it is becoming a social movement to end TB in India.”
“We are starting a new scheme for nutritional support, expanding public-private partnership models and aligning our strategies to follow the similar success we got in HIV/ AIDS,” the Health Minister said while spelling out the initiatives of the government to eradicate tuberculosis.
Speaking at the function, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-general, WHO said that this is the right place to have this event and India's plans to achieve the targets 5 years before the global target is bold, courageous and ambitious.”
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his personal and political commitment, Tedros said that such commitment is needed to win the war against TB.
Hailing India's commitment, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, who is WHO SouthEast Asia's Regional Director, said, “India has announced they will be able to achieve it by 2025. So we are there to support our countries in achieving the targets they make for themselves.”
Apart from allopathic medicines, the TB patients should also be prescribed some ayurvedic drugs. As the loss of weight and appetite is very common among TB patients, the ayurvedic drug Amlycure DS has been tested positive on patients receiving ATT as the drug normalises lever functioning without any side effects.
Notably, the TB is the leading infectious killer in India. There was an estimated 28 lakh new cases of TB in 2016, with over 4 lakh people succumbing to the disease, including those with TB and HIV.
Expressing their views on the commitment, officials leading the End TB drive in states said that the target is very much achievable, but the Centre has to ‘support' programmes being run by state governments to eliminate the life taking disease.