Nearly 60,000 TB cases recorded in Mumbai in 2021; marginal decline from pre-Covid days

Nearly 60000 cases of tuberculosis TB were reported in Mumbai in 2021 compared to over 43000 people diagnosed with the disease in the city in 2020 an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC said on FridayAs per the data shared by the civic body though the number of TB cases had risen to 59052 in 2021 from 43246 in 2020 the figure is slightly less when compared to 60440 cases reported in 2019 before the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemicOf the total TB patients 3 per cent are drug sensitive and 14 per cent drug resistant in Mumbai Annually around 4000 to 5000 drugresistant patients are found in Mumbai which is 58 per cent of the total TB patients found in Maharashtra the civic data statedOfficials of the BMCs public health department have claimed that all the services and facilities for TB patients were functional during the Covid19 lockdown as wellPublic health department staffers have in touch with patients through WhatsApp groups and video calls persuading them to continue their treatment and ensured that their supply of medicines remained unaffected during the pandemic the BMC saidThe department has appointed TB Champions for counselling patients as peer educators in a few municipal wards of Mumbai They have decided to have one TB champion in each ward as a pilot project with the help of Tata Institute of Social Science and Tata Funding These champions will motivate the TB patients to complete their medicine course it was statedTB survivors who have good communication skills and are willing to work with the BMC are eligible to become TB champions Most of these TB champions have faced stigma and harsh sideeffects of the antibiotics such as hair loss depression muscular weakness etc said Dr Pranita Tipre TB officer of MumbaiDr Tipre further said that patients who have recovered from the disease have been asked to become TB champions to guide those who have skipped their treatment and to remove the social stigma attached to the diseaseIn a year the civic body had managed to retrieve 200 patients who had stopped their treatment she addedThe Central government has targeted to eradicate the disease from the country by 2025 five years ahead of a global deadline of 2030 In 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched a TBfree India campaign to conduct activities under the national strategic plan for TB EliminationThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever