The Curious Case Of The Missing TB Patients

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The Curious Case Of The Missing TB Patients

• Every year, more than 4 million tuberculosis
  cases go unreported, undiagnosed or untreated.

2

• How do you fight a war when you cant even see
  the enemy? 
• Not a question many would ask, unless, of course,
  youre someone whos bent upon fighting
  tuberculosis.
• Every year, more than 4 million tuberculosis
  cases go unreported, undiagnosed or untreated.
• The Global TB Report 2016 reveals some startling
  factsof the 10.4 million people who suffer from
  TB, nearly 40 percent go unnoticed by health
  systems around the world. The same is the case,
  if not worse, with 580,000 people afflicted with
  drug-resistant TB. 80 percent of these folks
  aren't even on the radar of the global health
  network.
• Clearly, you cant stop a disease if you cant
  find it in the first place.

3
Eradication Is A Vague Dream

• Despite advances in diagnostic tools and newly
  updated treatment regimens, the world has been
  unable to stay ahead of the disease.
•  
• TB tops the chart of deadly infectious
  diseasesmore people die due to TB than any other
  infectious disease in the world. Moreover, TB is
  putting up a stubborn front against eradication.
•  
• Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop
  TB Partnership, says that if the world goes at
  the current rate of eradication, itll likely
  take another 170 years before TB is finally wiped
  out. Well, good luck living until 2187 to see a
  TB-free world. 
•  
• But unfortunately, thats the scenario if TB
  keeps reducing by just 1.5 percent a year.

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India Needs To Change Its Approach

• India accounts for nearly 30 of the global TB
  burdennearly 2.84 lakh new TB cases are detected
  each year in the country. 
• In 2016, Telangana alone reported 45,160 new
  cases of TB and 1722 cases of multidrug-resistant
  TB. According to Mr. Mujtaba Hasan Askari,
  President of Helping Hands Foundation, nearly 60
  of these patients opted for treatment in the
  private sector. And due to the private sectors
  penchant for poor reporting of cases, the data on
  the number of TB casesmissing, untreated or
  unreportedremains elusive.
• If TB is to be completely eradicated as an
  epidemic by 2030, global health partners need to
  treat at least 90 percent of all TB cases. As of
  now, only 59 percent of people with TB
  and 21 percent of people with drug-resistant TB
  are treated. 

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• Helping Hand Foundation is doing the best it can
  to tackle these issues in Hyderabad. The
  nonprofit is negotiating with the Government
  Chest Hospital to increase community based
  surveillance to identify missing cases and
  defaulters. Its also focussing on providing
  end-of-life care to MDR TB and XDR TB patients.