Out of 22 countries, India ranks 14th in TB prevalence

According to the latest World Health Organisation report on Tuberculosis, India reported a staggering 2.6 million cases. This makes the country the 14th in the global index. For Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, the report estimated 61,000 MDR-TB cases in India among notified pulmonary TB cases.

However, on the basis of prevalence rate, India ranks 14th among 22 high TB burden countries globally, he said while replying to questions.

"Due to the large population of our country, the same translates into the large number of cases," Nadda said.The Minister said it is likely that with a large private sector of healthcare in India, a significant proportion of cases not registered under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RRNTCP) were diagnosed and treated in private sector.

"The programmatic management of drug resistant TB under RNTCP had commenced in 2007 and complete country coverage was achieved in 2013. The action already taken by India is in consonance with the resolution of anti-microbial resistance passed by the World Health Assembly in May 2015," he said.

-PTI