NEW DELHI : Covid-19 may make it difficult for India to achieve its aim of eradicating tuberculosis (TB) by 2025.
The notification of TB cases has sharply declined in January-June, compared to the same period in 2019, according to real-time data available with the Union health ministry, indicating that the pandemic has severely hit TB notification services.While 914,000 TB cases were reported between January and June, 1.25 million cases came into light in the same period in 2019, representing a 26% fall in case notifications, showed government data.
Private sector notifications have dipped by 106,729 cases, or 30%. Close to 340,000 TB patients were notified to the government during the nationwide lockdown from April to June, down 47.6%.