7 million people receive record levels of lifesaving TB treatment but 3 million still miss out

(WHO, Oct. 17, 2019): More people received life-saving treatment for tuberculosis (TB) in 2018 than ever before, largely due to improved detection and diagnosis. Globally, 7 million people were diagnosed and treated for TB - up from 6.4 million in 2017– enabling the world to meet one of the milestones towards the United Nations political declaration targets on TB. 1.5 million people died from TB in 2018, down from 1.6 million in 2017. The number of new cases of TB has been declining steadily in recent years. However, the burden remains high among low-income and marginalized populations: around 10 million people developed TB in 2018.

WHO’s latest Global TB Report says that2018 also saw a reduction in the number of TB deaths:

WHO’s latest Global TB Report highlights that the world must accelerate progress if it is to reach the Sustainable Development Goal of ending TB by 2030. The report also notes that an estimated 3 million of those with TB still are not getting the care they need. One way to improve coverage is to adopt more people-centered comprehensive approaches. Better integrated HIV and TB programmes already mean that two thirds of people diagnosed with TB now know their HIV status. In addition, more people living with HIV are taking treatment. But child health programmes still do not always focus adequately on TB: half of children with TB do not access quality care and only a quarter of children under the age of 5 in TB-affected households currently receive preventive treatment.

Healthcare News Monitor

India continues to record maximum number of tuberculosis (TB) cases

ET Bureau-Teena Thacker

According to the latest report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) India accounted for 27 per cent of the total, followed by China with 9 per cent, Indonesia at 8 per cent, Pakistan (6 per cent) and Bangladesh (4 per cent). As per the report 10 million people had TB in 2018. While 26,90,000 people had TB in India, out of which 19,90,000 were notified. According to the report, TB kills 1.5 million every year and is the leading killer of people living with HIV/AIDS and a major cause of deaths due to anti-microbial resistance. India also had maximum number of drug resistant TB which is 27 per cent of a total 130,000 drug-resistant TB cases while China had 14 per cent such cases. Globally, 7 million new cases of TB were notified in 2018 — an increase from 6.4 million in 2017. “It is extremely concerning that the World Health Organization ´s (WHO) 2019 Global Tuberculosis Report confirms that tuberculosis (TB) remains the single most lethal infectious disease globally, surpassing HIV/AIDS, killing some 1.6 million people annually, and that the end of TB will remain out of reach until national leaders step up," said Dr Paula I Fujiwara, Scientific Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).

National Institute of Nutrition centenary stamp released

The Hindu Business Line

A special commemorative postal stamp of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad was released by Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Harsh Vardhan. The stamp has been brought out under the “Corporate My stamp” scheme of India Posts. These stamps are of limited edition and are made to order. Alongside these customised themed stamps, the NIN also opted for printing its centenary logo. About 5,000 stamps with a face value of ₹5 per stamp were printed and India Posts would print an additional 1,000 sheets for sale online at e-post office and for display and sale in national and global philately exhibitions by the Department, the NIN said in a press release. The release happened at a function held in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in New Delhi on Wednesday to commemorate the completion of Centenary Celebrations of the NIN, which is the oldest Institute under the ICMR. Balram Bhragava, Secretary Department of Health Research & Director General, ICMR and R Hemaltha, Director of NIN also took part.

Sharp drop in kids under 5 suffering from anaemia: Nutrition survey

TNN -Ambika Pandit

NEW DELHI: The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) released earlier this month puts number of children under five found to be anaemic at a worrisome 40.5% despite a sharp reduction from the 69.5% recorded in the national family health survey-3 of 2005-06. There has also been a notable decline from the 58.60% of children found to be anaemic in 2015-16 (NFHS-4) which itself is a fall of over 9 percentage points from 2005-06. With over 40% children still struggling with anaemia, the government target of bringing down anaemia by 9% by 2022 at the rate of 3% per year is a challenge. TOI had reported that the CNNS survey released by health ministry found only 6.4% of Indian children aged less than two years get a "minimum acceptable diet". Taking the data into account, a comparative analysis on anaemia, stunting and underweight children across the two NFHS periods and the CNNS data was shared at the fifth meet of the National Council on Indias Nutritional Challenges last week. The inputs will be part of the governments plans to combat malnutrition under the governments flagship scheme POSHAN Abhiyan. When the CNNS data is compared to 2005-06 stunting (low height for age) among under five children it shows a decline by 10 percentage points even though its incidence remains high at 34.7%. In case of underweight children below five, the decline from 2005-06 is seven percentage points. Wasting was 21% as per NFHS-4 and is 17.4% as per CNNS. As a word of caution in case of anaemia, it is pointed out in the analysis that the blood sample collection process was different for NFHS 2015-16 and CNNS (2016-18) and hence the two data sets are not comparable. Prevalence of anaemia was estimated from children in the age group 1-4 years measured using gold standard methods.

Goa govt forms committee to find institutes to diagnose and treat rare diseases

TNN-ET Healthworld -Bindiya Chari

PANAJI: The Goa government has constituted a state level technical-cum-administrative committee as per the national policy for treatment of rare diseases. The 16-member committee will be headed by the health secretary. The committee will identify institutions that will carry out diagnosis of the rare diseases and will provide treatment for rare diseases. It will have a role to review the applications received and decide eligible applicants that match criteria developed by the central committee for receiving funds and recommend cases to central committee for financial assistance. It will review the progress of the case, as per the criteria developed by the central committee and evaluate whether the clinical condition of the patient is being improved by the therapy. The state will set up corpus at the state level wherein government of India will contribute funds towards the state corpus in the ratio of 60:40, read order issued by public health department.

Nagpur: 23 hospitals, clinics fined Rs 2.19 lakh for dumping biomedical waste

TNN-ET Healthworld -Proshun Chakraborty

NAGPUR: The nuisance detection squad of Nagpur Municipal Corporation penalized Rs 25,000 on a renowned hospital in Sitabuldi for mixing biomedical waste with garbage on Wednesday. Since formation on December 11, 2017, the NDS team has so far caught 23 hospitals and clinics for dumping biomedical waste for mixing with garbage and recovered Rs 2.19 lakh fine from them. According to data, highest numbers of cases were carried out under Laxmi Nagar zone wherein seven clinics and hospitals were caught while disposing bio-medical waste in garbage. Similarly, six under Dhantoli zone, five under Mangalwari zone, one each in Dharampeth, Nehru Nagar, Satranjipura, Lakadganj zones, respectively have been penalised. However, there was no case registered under Ashi Nagar and Gandhibagh zones.