Karnataka is among nine States that accounts for 65% of tuberculosis cases

With nine States, including Karnataka, accounting for 65% of the total tuberculosis (TB) cases in the country, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has stepped up measures in these States to eliminate TB by 2025, well ahead of the Sustainable Development Goals target year of 2030.

Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal are the other States where TB cases are high. While 24.02 lakh new cases were detected in 2019, 21.59 lakh cases were detected in 2018 across the country, said Vikas Sheel, Union Joint Secretary (Policy) in charge of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme.

“Of the 91,318 TB cases notified in Karnataka in 2019, 71,998 cases have been notified from the public sector. The annual total TB notification rate in Karnataka is 135 cases/lakh/year in 2019 and all measures are being taken to ensure no TB case is missed,” the official said.

Internal audit

Replying to queries regarding “suspicious transactions” in the transfer of direct cash benefit for nutrition to TB patients following which the cash transfer had been stopped for some time, the official said the process had resumed after an internal audit.

“We did an internal audit and found that some transfers were done in the name of NGOs and trusts. We noticed that it was because homeless people, who do not have a permanent address and cannot have a bank account, were under the care of these organisations. The transfer was done to the bank account of these organisations and was being used for the patients. The doubts have been cleared now,” he said.