Challenges with providing and accessing essential TB services had meant that many people with the disease were not diagnosed in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic hit the country. (Express file photo)More than 1,100 people who had tuberculosis (TB) succumbed to the disease in the last two years in Pune city and Pimpri Chinchwad, data from health authorities show.
In Pune, there were 439 deaths due to the infectious disease that affects the lungs in 2020 and 385 in 2021. In 2020, there were 147 TB deaths in Pimpri-Chinchwad while another 162 in 2021. This year, there have been 48 deaths in Pune from January to June and 39 people have died in Pimpri Chinchwad during the same period due to TB.
Challenges with providing and accessing essential TB services had meant that many people with the disease were not diagnosed in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic hit the country. While TB services among others had been disrupted by the pandemic, the impact on TB had been severe according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which had projected that the number of people developing TB and dying from the disease could be much higher in 2021 and 2022.
Dr Balasaheb Hodgar, TB control officer in Pimpri-Chinchwad, told The Indian Express that the number of deaths due to the disease was also related to delayed diagnosis due to the migration of people from other states to city areas. Addiction, irregular treatment, and comorbid conditions of the patient are also among the factors that are associated with the number of deaths due to TB, added Dr Hodgar.
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With the country focused on eliminating TB by 2025—five years ahead of the global target, health authorities in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad are now working hard to address the problem. Maharashtra has set different targets for detecting new TB cases according to the endemicity of the disease, population, and other factors for each district in the state.
In Pune, the target was to identify more than 8,000 new TB cases annually and across the city, TB control officers were able to detect close to 7,000 cases in 2021. From January to December 2021, the city TB control unit detected 6,937 new cases against 5,618 in 2020. This year, from January to June, around 3,294 new cases of TB have been detected. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, there were 2,060 new TB cases in 2020 and in 2021, around 2,560 people were found to be diagnosed with the disease. Till June this year, 1,458 new TB cases have been detected.
Dr Prashant Bothe, Pune city TB control officer, told The Indian Express that Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) were trained to collect sputum of suspected TB patients from slums and other areas in the city.
“There are 170 ASHAs involved in the TB control programme and an amount of Rs 30 is given for the collection of samples to transport them to the diagnostic microscopy centres. Each ASHA has the charge of at least seven to eight slums and with this network, we are able to identify more cases. The introduction of six TruNat testing machines and two Cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) has helped in the rapid diagnosis of TB,” Dr Bothe said.
Apart from this, there are 650 facilities in the private sector that are now notifying TB cases to the PMC health department.
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