NEW DELHI: A newly approved skin test for tuberculosis diagnosis will soon be introduced in India, which has the highest burden of the disease globally.
Announcing the ‘Made in India’ skin test for TB, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that the cost-effective kit will also be of immense benefit to other high burden countries.
“Starting later this year, we will introduce a newly approved made in India TB infection skin test called c-TB,” said the minister while addressing the 35th board meeting of the Stop TB Partnership through video-conferencing.
There was a severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tuberculosis (TB) programmes in high burden countries. Keeping this in mind, several new initiatives have been taken to make India TB free by 2025.
Among these are the ‘bidirectional testing’ of TB with Covid, house-to-house TB detection campaigns, scaling up of rapid molecular diagnostics at sub-district levels, use of artificial intelligence and digital tools, ‘Jan Andolan’.
Also, the decentralisation of TB services to Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWAs) as part of comprehensive primary healthcare, the minister said.
He also informed that a new initiative, ‘Adopt people with TB,’ will be launched this year based on Indian values of collectivism to call upon corporates, industries, organisations, political parties and individuals to come forward and adopt TB-infected people and families and provide them nutritional and social support.
“We are also actively involving elected representatives in India like the Members of Parliament, Members of Legislative Assemblies in the states, members of urban local bodies and panchayat representatives at the grassroots level in raising awareness and advocating for TB across the country,” the minister said.
Mandaviya congratulated Minister of Health of Indonesia Budi Gunadi Sadikin for being a champion in prioritising TB under the Indonesia Presidency of G20.
He said India, under its 2023 Presidency of the G20, will focus on two health issues – TB and cervical cancer.
India saw a 19 per cent increase in new and relapsed tuberculosis (TB) patients in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to the annual India TB report.
It said that 4.93 lakh deaths, excluding HIV patients, due to TB were reported in 2020, which was 13 per cent higher than the previous year.