NEW DELHI : Number of tuberculosis (TB) cases in India has jumped 19% to 1.93 million in 2021, reversing a declining trend seen in the year before, as pandemic related lockdown restrictions affected the drive to eliminate TB by 2025, official data showed.
Union health ministry has reported a 19% increase in tuberculosis patients in 2021, up from 1.62 million cases in the year before.
In 2020, tuberculosis cases had come down by nearly a third from the 2.4 million cases reported in 2019. According to the government, Covid-19 had a major impact on the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) because patients stopped visiting or couldn’t visit hospitals due to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions.
These statistics were revealed in the Annual Tuberculosis Report 2022 released by Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on the occasion of World TB Day on Thursday.