Covid-19 hits tuberculosis case notification in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The Central government’s ambitious goal of eradicating tuberculosis (TB) in the country by 2025, five years ahead of the global target of 2030, has hit the pandemic roadblock with considerable slowdown in the notification of TB cases across the states.

As per the WHO’s 2021 global TB report, notification of TB cases had gone down by 41 per cent (pc) between 2019 and 2020 which meant all hard-earned gains in testing and tracking had been lost, said experts at a panel discussion held at SUM Hospital here.Professor in the department of Community Medicine Dr E Venkat Rao said poor compliance from private healthcare sector led to underestimation of the disease burden.

Reporting information on diagnosis and treatment of TB cases to the nodal public health authority or officials designated by them was extremely important as every government, private, non-government organisations and individual practitioners providing health care were expected to notify such cases immediately.

Suggesting incentives to private practitioners and extending help in diagnostic and drug services to private sector, Prof Rao said financial support to all patients and regulatory approach for legal action for not notifying can help reverse the trend of under-reporting of cases.

The panel discussion on ‘Sensitisation of Private Sector TB Service Providers’ was organised by Centre for Catalysing Change (C3) in collaboration with IMS and SUM Hospital. State Head of C3 Ashok Nayak and Programme Officer Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan also spoke.