Hyderabad: The notification of tuberculosis in Telangana is 100 per 1,00,000 population, which is very high when compared to the notification rate in India of 138 per 1,00,000 population.
The study shows that notification in TS is being actively done on identifying new TB cases, according to a study published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care. The notification, according to state government officials, is only 50 per cent in the private sector and 100 per cent in the public sector.
Dr Subakar Kandi, Professor of Pulmonary Medicine in Osmania Medical College, explained, “The notification has always been better in the southern states than in the northern states. Hence, the major numbers in the data are generated from the southern states only. But to say that the notification is complete can’t be accepted as we are still missing one-third of cases. Notification has improved only in the last two years in the private sector.”
The study was carried out as part of the Global TB report which found that the number of TB cases was very high in TS. Does this also mean that there is over diagnosis of the cases? Dr. S Mallikarjun Rao, senior consultant pulmonologist and chest specialist at Apollo Hospitals, explained, “There is no over-diagnosis but a better system of reporting. The number of patients coming to the private and public sector hospitals is being notified to the government. For this reason, we have high numbers and this is showing in the records.”
TB notification involves paediatric TB cases, multi-drug resistant TB and HIV persons infected with TB, all of which are collated in the data. Yet, the number of missed cases is as high as 4.2 million globally, according to recent estimates in 2018. In India alone, 1 million cases are missed.
The total number of TB cases notified in the world is 10.4 million and of these, 2.79 million are in India only. Missing cases are a big concern as they are a contributory factor for the spread of TB and these numbers are the biggest challenge in the fight against TB in India.
