Editorials
Tuberculosis in India
BMJ 2015; 350 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h1080 (Published 23 March 2015)
Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h1080
Rapid response


Re: Tuberculosis in India
In India TB is well controlled with the Indian Government's National Tuberculosis control programme.
Tuberculosis is an airborne disease cause by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and can kill around 4000 people every day.
India has the world’s largest burden of tuberculosis (TB), accounting for one-fourth of all new infections. It kills nearly 300,000 people in India every year.
The incidence : prevalence ratio in India is about 1:32.
In India 40% of the country's population carries Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the passive form. Malnutrition plays an important role in activating this latent and passive TB bacteria. This poses a real threat to the 65 million underweight children in the country. The bacteria becomes active in the wake of lowered immunity which is caused by lack of nutritious food intake. The probability of developing tuberculosis amongst younger children is very high. It thus becomes crucial that a strong action plan is put in place for addressing the occurrence of this disease amongst children under 6 years of age .
World TB Day is celebrated every year to fight stigma and eliminate TB as a public health threat.
The theme of the World TB Day celebration in 2015 is “Reach, Treat, Cure Everyone”
People must know that it is a completely curable disease at very low-cost through the DOTS treatment administered by the Indian government. In India its treatments and diagnostic tests are very accessible by each and every person affected by tuberculosis. In India the Tamilnadu government is fully implementing the TB control programme.
Competing interests: No competing interests
27 March 2015
M A Aleem
Neurologist
ABC Hospital
Annamalainagar Trichy 620018 Tamilnadu India
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