Page 4 - Tuberculosis

Ni-kshay model can't be mainstay in eradicating TB by 2025: Parl panel

The Ni-kshay adoption model cannot be considered as the mainstay in eradicating TB by 2025, a parliamentary committee said. In its 149th report tabled in Parliament, the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare expressed its concerns over a sense of complacency within the ministry and the government organisation responsible for implementing the TB elimination programme. The report said the shifting of responsibility to non-governmental organisations "eventually may impede the overall progress" of TB eradication. The committee suggested that the government establish a robust selection process for Ni-kshay Mitra and implement effective monitoring mechanisms to ensure their diligent fulfilment of responsibilities. Under the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (Ni-kshay Mitra initiative) implemented by the Health Ministry, community support is provided to TB patients through the Ni-kshay 2.0 portal on which TB patients can be adopted and cared

India's efforts to eradicate TB by 2025 role model for world: Minister

A public-private partnership (PPP) with integrated strategy is essential to achieve a "TB-mukt Bharat" (tuberculosis-free India), Union minister Jitendra Singh has said. At an event on Sunday, Singh said India's efforts to eradicate tuberculosis by 2025 are a role model for the world. The minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office was speaking after flagging off the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi (SMVD) Narayana healthcare "TB-Mukt Express", a mobile medical van that will visit different villages in his parliamentary constituency Udhampur, with the slogan "Chalo Chale TB ko Harane" (let's defeat TB). The event coincided with the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "India's efforts to eradicate TB by 2025 are a role model for the world. The citizens need to work collectively towards TB elimination in the true spirit of 'Jan Bhagidari'," Singh said. He said considering the deep societal and economic impact caused by tuberculosis, the BJP-led Centre has placed high priority for a

In century of existence, BCG vaccine has given protection against TB

Revaccination can be considered as a low-cost and globally acceptable future pandemic preparedness plan

J&J, Lupin cut prices for tuberculosis drug in lower-income countries

(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson and Indian drugmaker Lupin will supply their versions of the tuberculosis drug bedaquiline at a significantly cheaper price in low- and middle-income countries, a global anti-tuberculosis group said on Wednesday.

Rajasthan first to declare 29 gram panchayats as TB free: CM Gehlot

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said Rajasthan is the first state in the country to declare 29 gram panchayats as tuberculosis-free. He said four district of the state got silver medal and four got bronze medal at the national level for excellent work in TB eradication. "This indicates our serious efforts towards eradication of tuberculosis," he said at a TB-free Rajasthan conference here. He said that the state government is continuously working to make Rajasthan the number one state in all sectors, including health, by 2030 to realise the vision of "Nirogi Rajasthan". "It is our commitment to provide health services to the last person by providing medical facilities in every village," he said. The programme was held at the chief minister's residence where he also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various development works through video conference. He also flagged off 70 new ambulances on the occasion. "The life of a patient suffering from tuberculos

Equitable access to diagnosis, treatment pivotal to ending TB: Mandaviya

Collaborative and collective efforts among countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region and equitable access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment options are pivotal to ending TB, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday, citing the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Delivering the keynote address at a ministerial meeting on "Sustain, Accelerate, and Innovate to end TB in the South-East Asia Region", Mandaviya reiterated India's commitment of eliminating TB from the country by 2025, five years ahead of the global deadline. The meeting was co-chaired by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus here on Thursday. The event witnessed a significant milestone in the signing of the Gandhinagar Declaration, which calls for establishing a high-level multisectoral commission reporting to the highest political level in each country for synergy of efforts among various stakeholders and to monitor progress towards ending TB and other priority diseases. The declaration i

WHO South-East Asia region commits to enhancing efforts to end TB

The WHO South-East Asia Region, which bears a disproportionate burden of nearly half of the global TB cases and deaths, on Thursday committed to further accelerate efforts to end tuberculosis by 2030 with its member countries adopting the Gandhinagar Declaration. "Today urgent action is needed more than ever to achieve our goal of a region free of tuberculosis, that has been menacing millions of people with disease and death, poverty, and despair," Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia, said in her address to a ministerial meeting on "Sustain, Accelerate, and Innovate to end TB in the South-East Asia Region". The Gandhinagar Declaration was adopted at the end of the two-day meeting held to follow-up on the progress made to end TB, a flagship priority in the region, and in the run-up to the UN High Level Meeting on TB on September 22 in New York. The declaration calls for establishing high-level multisectoral commission reporting to the highest political ..

Nutrition support shown to prevent TB, related deaths in India: Lancet

A monthly food basket with adequate protein alongside effective therapy has been found to reduce new tuberculosis cases by nearly half among family members of TB patients in India, according to a study published in The Lancet Global Health journal. An international team of researchers enrolled household contacts of 2,800 patients with confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis across 28 TB units of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme in four districts of Jharkhand. Household contacts in the intervention group received monthly food rations and micronutrients (750 kcal, 23 grams of protein per day with micronutrients). After screening all household contacts for co-prevalent tuberculosis, all participants were followed up actively until July 31, 2022, for the primary outcome of incident TB. Between August 2019 and January 2021, there were 10,345 household contacts, of whom 5,328 (948 per cent) of 5,621 household contacts in the intervention group and 4,283 (907 per cent) of 4,724 ..

Emergency was dark era in country's history: PM Modi on Mann Ki Baat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said Emergency was a dark era in the country's history when atrocities were committed on those supporting democracy. He asserted that India is the mother of democracy which holds democratic values and the Constitution supreme and, therefore, "we cannot forget June 25 when Emergency was imposed on us". Emergency was imposed in 1975 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In his Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast, Modi also lauded India's increasing capability to deal with natural disasters as he expressed confidence that the people of Kutch will quickly recover from the devastation caused by cyclone Biparjoy. The prime minister said after the devastating earthquake two decades ago, people had expressed doubts on whether Kutch will be able to recover from the destruction. But the people of Kutch recovered from the disaster, he said. Modi also said that in the last few years, India's disaster management capability has increased and it is becoming a

Diseases know no borders, Covid underlined need for joint effort: Mandaviya

Mandaviya, in his address, highlighted the importance of collaborative research in mitigating and responding effectively to global health crises

India has developed its own mechanism for estimating TB burden: Mansukh

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya, on Thursday said that India is the only country in the world to have developed its own mechanism for estimating its TB burden

India aiming to eliminate TB 5 years ahead of SDG target: Health Minister

At a Quad plus side event on tuberculosis, Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya highlighted India's efforts to reach out to overlooked patients and combat TB's societal stigma

India develops own mathematical model for estimating TB cases in country

India has become the first country in the world to have developed a country-level mathematical model to estimate the prevalence of TB cases, official sources said on Tuesday. Using this model, TB incidence and mortality estimate data for India will be available by March every year, months before the annual WHO estimates are released in October, they said, adding that India can also prepare similar estimates at the state level in future. The model was presented before the delegates from 40 countries taking part in the 36th Stop TB Partnership Board meeting in Varanasi last week. Most of them lauded it saying they would want to implement it in their countries, the sources said. According to WHO estimates, the TB incidence rate (per 10,000) in India in 2021 was 210. Using the Indian mathematical model, it was estimated to be 196 in 2022. The WHO estimated that the TB incidence absolute number to be 29.50 lakh in 2021. The Indian model suggested it was 27.70 lakh in 2022. According to

India commits to eradicating TB by 2025, way ahead of global time line

Starts 3-month prevention course; generic low cost versions of J&J's MDR-TB drug likely to boost programme

World TB Day: PM Modi launches initiatives to eliminate disease by 2025

PM Modi launched the TB-Mukt Panchayat initiative, a pan-India rollout of a shorter TB Preventive Treatment (TPT) and a family-centric care model for tuberculosis

Natural immune system process of humans could be used to treat TB: Study

Human body's natural process of removing old and damaged cell parts could be harnessed to treat infections like tuberculosis (TB), reducing reliance on antibiotics, according to a new study. Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, UK, investigated genes important for bacteria to evade autophagy, a self-destruction mechanism cells resort to when stressed. Their study is published in Nature Microbiology. According to the study, from induced pluripotent stem cells, a kind of specialist stem cells and are able to become any cell type in the body, the scientists engineered macrophages, or human immune cells. Following this, they disabled these macrophages from performing autophagy using genome editing tools. The cells were then infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, bacteria causing TB. The scientists found that the infection took hold, replicating more within the edited macrophages and causing mass host-cell death. The results evidence the role of autophagy in controlling ...

WHO calls for intensified whole-of-government approach to end tuberculosis

On World TB Day, WHO Friday called for an intensified whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to end the disease globally. It also highlighted the urgent need for strengthening high-level leadership and investments and accelerating the uptake of innovations and new recommendations of the world health body. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has not just stalled but reversed years of progress towards ending tuberculosis, said WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh. In 2021, the estimated burden of new and relapse tuberculosis cases globally was 10.6 million, a half-a-million increase from 2020. Mortality from TB and TB-HIV infection stood at 1.6 million, an increase of around 200,000 from pre-COVID-19 levels, she said. The WHO South-East Asia Region bears the world's highest tuberculosis burden. In 2021, the region accounted for more than 45 per cent of global tuberculosis incidence and more than half of global TB deaths. Throughout the COVID-19

India committed to end tuberculosis by 2025: PM lauches TB-Mukt Panchayat

The Prime Minister said that around 2 lakh crore have been directly sent into the accounts of 75 lakh patients through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)

India's TB programme: Low cost generics of J&J's MDR-TB drug on the anvil

Indian Patent Office's decision on J&J's bedaquiline came on the eve of World Tuberculosis Day, marked on March 24 every year, to raise public awareness & to boost efforts to end the TB epidemic

PM Narendra Modi to address 'One World TB Summit' on March 24 in Varanasi

One World TB Summit will provide an opportunity to further deliberate upon the targets as the country moves forward to meet its TB elimination objectives