Almost 70% people in India are carrying the bacteria of Tuberculosis (TB) which means they can suffer from the disease at any time. 5% of those 70% are suffering from the disease. More than half of these patients are not complying due to which it has become a major hurdle in India’s TB-free objective. Early detection of TB patients and ensuring their continuous treatment is the only way that TB can be eradicated from India.

Dr Atul Kulkarni, Past Chairman of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine (ISCCM) and Dr Rajesh Pande, well-known Pulmonologist and Senior Director and Head of BLX MAX Centre for Critical Care, BLK MAX Superspeciality Hospital, Delhi made the above statement while talking to ‘The Hitavada’.

Both are here as special faculties for Criticare Convention 2023 in association with Association of Medical Faculties (AMF) to be held on Sunday at Hotel Centre Point, Nagpur.

TB is an infectious disease caused by a bacteria that affects the lungs. It spreads through the air when infected people cough, sneeze or spit. It is a report of Central Government which clearly brought the fact to the fore that during peak wave of coronavirus, more people died of TB. Central Government has said that it wants to make India TB-free by 2024.

 

But both Dr Kulkarni and Dr Pande feel it is unrealistic.

“We are over crowded and now we have become number one in population. India’s population is more than that of China’s and USA’s individually but their geographical areas are larger. India is not that big but has more number of people living in it. This is where TB gets the space to spread faster. To add to our woes, TB bacteria has become drug resistant and so we need to do extensive research that would lead to finding new effective medicines,” said Dr Rajesh Pande who is also the Past General Secretary, ISCCM, Past Organising Secretary Criticare 2023.

“When the TB patients being treated, they feel better. They then leave the treatment halfway and never comply with the directions of physicians. This is the most dangerous part, because the bacteria lies dormant and comes back up again causing severe problems. Left untreated, TB can kill approximately half of infected patients within five years and produce significant morbidity (illness) in others,” warned Dr Kulkarni.

 

Both doctors feel the focus of Government is on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) like obesity, hypertension, diabetes, heart ailments. According to Dr Kulkarni and Dr Pande, these diseases are related to lifestyle but more deaths are occurring due to communicable diseases like TB, Malaria, dengue.

Dr Pande pointed out, “Government is doing quite good as far as measures are to be taken to eradicate TB is concerned. It is giving free medicine, free treatment, but the policies of Central Government should be sync with that of State. Secondly, we need to conduct drive for TB like the one that was conducted for Polio. If these things are implemented along with the aggressive compliance, we can surely make India TB-free.”