Significant rise in young TB patients in India after Covid: Experts

Covid has significantly reversed the gains made in tuberculosis (TB) control and has led to an increase of about 25-30 percent patients, particularly young adults, said experts on Wednesday ahead of World Tuberculosis Day. March 24 is globally observed as World Tuberculosis Day every year to raise awareness about the disease that is curable but affects approximately 4.1 million people across the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). India contributes to 27 percent of the global TB burden. It is estimated that over 35-50 crore people in India have TB infection and over 26 lakh people develop TB annually. As Covid hogged the limelight, healthcare resources were diverted to combat the rising cases. TB services were thus disrupted in the last two years.

In March last year, an analysis by the Health Ministry notified that Covid brought down TB detection by 25 percent in India in 2020. Tuberculosis notifications reduced to 18.02 lakh in 2020 from 24.04 lakh in 2019 due to lockdown and diversion of resources, the ministry said. India also accounted for 34 percent of an estimated 1.48 million deaths due to TB globally in 2020. Deaths due to TB in the country also rose by 3 percent compared to 2019, WHO’s 2021 Global TB report said. As per experts, the deaths due to the infectious disease is still on the high. While India is on a mission to become TB free by 2025, there is a significant rise in TB cases among youngsters.

A recent report by Mumbai-based health-tech startup Haystack Analytics has indicated that India continues to bear the largest share of TB cases in the world, with 65 percent of the cases being reported in the most economically productive population segment between the ages 15-45. Budhraja added that Aakash hospital has seen more than 50 instances of tuberculosis in youngsters, in the last three months.

Maurya attributed the increase to delayed diagnosis and also due to more spread among families and communities as patients didn’t move outside the house for diagnosis.

Other factors found to be increasingly associated with the increase of TB cases were the presence of comorbidities, especially diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung and kidney disease. TB is an airborne infection, and the bacteria are discharged into the air when a person with the infectious condition coughs or sneezes.