WHO's Global TB Report: Here's why India should be worried

In 2015, the country reported 50% more cases of tuberculosis than a year earlier

Even as the occurrence of tuberculosis and related deaths are on the wane both globally and in India, the epidemic is larger in India than estimated earlier, shows the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Global Tuberculosis (TB) Report 2016.

In an indication that the measures taken by the successive central governments in India over the years might have fallen short, India in 2015 recorded 50% more cases of TB than in the previous year. The report shows that 7,234 cases of Extensive Drug Resistance TB (XDR-TB) were reported globally in 2015. India accounted for about 30% of total (2,130), followed by Ukraine (1,206), the Russian Federation (1,205) and South Africa (719). The mortality rate in India and South Africa for such cases was also high (more than 40%).

An estimated 480,000 new cases of Multidrug-Resistant TB (MDR-TB) were reported globally during the year, besides 100,000 people with Rifampicin-Resistant TB (RR-TB) who were eligible for MDR-TB treatments – a total of 580,000. Of them, 45% of all such cases were accounted for by India, China and Russian Federation alone.

Almost 5,000 TB deaths are reported globally on a daily basis, as many patients with MDR-TB are not able to access proper treatment, the report says, adding that India alone accounts for an alarming 1,400 such deaths every day.

The report also reveals that financial aid received by low- and middle-income countries for national TB programmes (NTPs) fall almost $2 billion short of the $8.3 billion required in 2016, and this annual gap could widen to $6 billion by 2020, if the current funding levels do not increase.

Also, considering that the government expenditure on health in 150 countries in 2014 was less than the WHO benchmark of at least 6% of gross domestic product (GDP), the report points to the pressing need for improvements in overall health financing by governments, particularly in the most affected countries like India.