MUMBAI, March 25 (Xinhua) -- India notified 2.15 million new tuberculosis patients in 2018, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has said.
The ministry said in a release on Sunday, the World TB Day, that the initiatives taken by the public and private sector have resulted in an increase from 25 percent to 83 percent in the treatment success rates (2017-2018), while the TB prevalence rates have come down from 29 percent to 4 percent.
The ministry reiterated their commitment to eliminating TB in the country by 2025.
India, which accounts for about a quarter of the Global TB Burden, has the highest burden of both TB and Multi Drug Resistant TB, exacerbated by the injudicious use of drugs, said a release by the Council for Healthcare and Pharma (CHP-F), an independent think tank that advocates the development of sustainable health systems.
According to WHO, TB is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. In 2017, 10 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.6 million died from the disease (including 0.3 million among people with HIV).
