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World TB day……..
World TB Day marks the day when the organism causing TB was discovered by the scientist Robert Koch. It is observed on 24th March of every year. This day is not considered a day of celebration but a day to make people aware of the consequences of the disease and the combined effort needed from every person to bring an end to this disease.
We can end TB……
Every year a new theme or slogan is selected and released in the media to make people attracted to it. Last year the theme was Invest in TB, Save Lives. The theme selected for the year 2024 is – “ Yes ! we can end TB ! ”. It urges people from all over the world to come together and raise awareness and end TB in their surroundings.
India has a very big case-load of TB and deaths related to it. In the recent World Tuberculosis Report released by WHO, the performance of India in relation to ending TB has been better than many countries in many parameters. But there was an increased incidence of TB reported in 2021 as compared to previous years. It was also noticed that the percentage of resistant cases of TB increased as compared to previous years. This may be attributed to the Covid 19 pandemic and focusing all healthcare funding and strength to manage that.
Steps being taken to End TB
On seeing the rise in cases of TB, the Indian government has launched the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan to make people participate in the elimination of TB. With its slogan being “ TB Harga, Desh Jeetega “. A National TB prevalence survey has been carried out on a large scale to detect areas with a high prevalence of TB cases. This survey has been conducted at both the national and state levels.
As soon as a child is born, he is administered the BCG vaccine. This vaccine can be given during the first year of the child only. It is the only vaccine known to prevent dangerous complications of TB in children. Various vaccines are under trial and there is hope that they will soon pass the trial and be released in the markets. On seeing the success of a large vaccination drive against Covid 19, there is a high chance of success for this vaccine drive also in the future.
WHO has made aim to End TB by 2035, whereas Sustainable Development Goals aim to end it by 2030, whereas India aims to end TB 5 years early i.e. in 2025. There have been many debates about whether India would be able to achieve this ambitious target. This will need the support of all the citizens and workers of the health sector.
Challenges being faced to End TB
One of the biggest challenges is that the patient stops their treatment before they are fully cured. This leads to the development of resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs in them. They may infect other people with this resistant gene bacteria causing the development of multi-drug resistant TB in them. This is much more harmful as a longer duration of treatment will be required in these patients.
Many new and fast ways to isolate and diagnose TB-causing bacteria have been developed. They give the result in a few minutes to hours. Previous methods used to take many days for the result to come, thus taking that much time to start the treatment. Efforts have been made to make the treatment full of oral medication so that now patients do not have to take injections thus reducing the number of patients who used to leave in between the treatment.
All in all the combined effort of the people, the healthcare sector, and the government is needed to overcome the infection of TB and End it from the face of the Earth.
