India’s TB Deaths Fall 38% Since 2015, Outpacing Global Decline of 35%, Says Health Ministry

Tuberculosis, also called TB, is a serious illness that mainly affects the lungs. (Photo: iStock)

New Delhi: India has reduced tuberculosis mortality by 38 per cent since 2015, compared with a global decline of 35 per cent, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, citing the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2026, released on 12 November. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a press release that the country also recorded a 94 per cent treatment success rate among patients with drug-susceptible TB.

The ministry said the report puts India’s estimated TB mortality rate at 18 per lakh population in 2025, down from 28 per lakh in 2015. To arrive at the estimate, the WHO drew on the Registrar General of India’s Sample Registration System, community-based verbal autopsy assessments and programme data from the Ni-kshay portal, the ministry said.

It credited the fall to measures under the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), including proactive case finding, AI-enabled X-rays, rapid diagnostics, prompt treatment initiation, differentiated TB care, and nutritional support through the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana and the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative. AI tools are also used to identify hotspots and predict high-risk cases, besides powering Khushi, an AI…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle