146th WHO EB Agenda Item 10: Ending Tuberculosis – Delivered by Dr. Sadre Alam, First Secretary
Thank you Mr. Chair,
We remain committed to Ending TB by 2025. Towards this end, we launched an ambitious National Strategic Plan in 2017. The incidence of TB has reduced from 217 in 2015 to 199 per one lakh population during the year 2018. As a result of intensified active case finding and strengthening of diagnostic services, we have reduced the gap between estimated and detected cases to less than 0.3 million, notifying 2.15 million new TB cases in 2018 and 2.39 million new cases in 2019.
With capacity building at all levels and an uninterrupted supply of quality TB drugs, we have been able to maintain Treatment Success Rates of more than 80%. We are also providing nutrition support to all TB patients for better treatment adherence and outcomes. Nikshay, our IT application, is a comprehensive patient tracking system for monitoring progress towards the End TB target.
We recognise the need for accelerating research in the field of diagnostics, treatment and implementation. Indigenously developed rapid molecular diagnostic technology TrueNAT is a result of our commitment to research and innovation. We are also investing for TB research through India TB Research Consortium and BRICS TB Research Network.
We support the Global Strategy for Tuberculosis Research & Innovation and agree with the proposed EB decision.
Thank you.
