HYDERABAD: Depicting a dismal picture, NITI Aayog’s 2019 Health Index report has placed Telangana at the bottom of five larger states with regard to tuberculosis notification rates, which is being vehemently contended by the State TB Cell on the account of ‘data mismatch’.
According to the report from the Central government’s policy think tank, only 107 tuberculosis (TB) cases were reported per lakh population in the reference year of 2017-2018. In the base year of 2015-16, 123 cases were reported per lakh population.
But the State’s TB Cell refutes the reports, claiming the numbers provided by the State do not match with that of NITI Aayog’s report.
Dr A Rajesham, Joint Director of the Telangana TB Cell, told Express, “The data that was sent by us does not match with the report of NITI Aayog. According to our data 124 cases were reported per lakh population. We have written to the Central government regarding this, and they have released an annexure report. We have also kept A Santhi Kumari, Principal Secretary of Health, Medical and Family welfare, in the loop.”
However, even if the State TB Cell’s data is taken into account, Telangana still stands in the 13th position among the 21 larger states.
Not all cases reported
Dr Mahboob Khan, superintendent of TB and Chest Hospital, which is state’s only chest hospital, said, “One of the major reasons for these statistics are that neither the public nor private hospitals provide the correct number of cases. More often than not, the number of cases that are reported are half of the actual number of cases. Especially in private hospitals only 60 to 70 per cent of the cases are reported.”
Dr Khan’s statement seems to be fairly accurate considering the State TB Cell records.
In 2017, the cases were estimated to be 72,976, but only 45,600 cases were actually documented, of which 38,262 were new cases and 6,838 previously treated. In 2018-19 too, 74,785 cases were estimated, but only 58,113 were reported.
In March, 2018, the Union Health Ministry made it illegal for chemists and hospital staff treating TB patients to withhold information from health authorities about the patients and made the offence punishable by a two-year jail term.
TS 2nd best in India
The TS, however, managed fare well in treatment success rate of new microbiologically confirmed tuberculosis cases, ranking second best in the country with a 90.4 per cent success.