The Clock Is Ticking… India’s research efforts must focus on containing TB amidst the global pandemic
Flagging WHO’s theme for this year’s World Tuberculosis Day, ‘The Clock is Ticking’, the Indian Society for Clinical Research (ISCR) has called on all research stakeholders to continue to focus on and invest in research in TB so that the risk to End TB because of the pandemic is minimised.
Tuberculosis kills more than 4,000 people every day according to WHO estimate.[1] The theme of this year aims to deliver the message of urgency to global leaders to act on their commitments towards controlling TB while highlighting that the world is running out of time to act on its commitments to end TB.
Facts About Tuberculosis
· Globally, nearly 4,000 people die every day due to TB
· Globally, 28,000 people fall ill with TB every day
· India’s TB incidence stood at 2.69 million in 2019
· In 2019, about 0.5 million people fell ill with drug-resistant TB
“The burden of TB in India is huge. The pandemic should not be a pause on our mission of finding preventive and curative treatment for illnesses that are endemic in our region,” said Dr Chirag Trivedi, President, ISCR. “More investment in TB research is needed so that we can work towards finding newer and more effective treatment particularly for multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) which is a major contributor to deaths from antimicrobial resistance globally.”
India accounts for about a quarter of the global TB burden. The Government of India is calling for the elimination of TB by 2025, five years ahead of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to End TB by 2030. The key to this is the National Strategic Plan 2017 – 2025, which is devised with the vision of a TB free India with zero deaths, disease, and poverty due to tuberculosis. It emphasizes the requirements to achieve a rapid decline in the burden of TB, mortality, and morbidity including private sector engagement.
World Tuberculosis Day is celebrated every year on March 24th to increase efforts and raise public awareness about the health and socio-economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB).