Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan

On September 9, 2022, Smt. Droupadi Murmu, the President of India, effectively began the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan. All community stakeholders will be brought together by the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan to help people receive TB treatment and hasten the nation’s progress toward TB eradication. The purpose of the launch event is to draw attention to the need for a societal strategy that unites individuals from all walks of life into a “Jan Andolan” in order to meet the ambitious goal of eradicating TB from the nation by 2025.  All countries have set the target of eliminating TB by the year 2030 in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

The Ni-kshay Mitra program, which is a crucial part of the “Abhiyaan,” will also be introduced by the President. Donors can offer various sorts of support to people receiving TB treatment through the Ni-kshay Mitra portal. Nutritional, extra diagnostic, and vocational support are all parts of the three-pronged support system. The donors, known as Ni-kshay Mitras, may include a wide spectrum of groups and individuals, corporations, NGOs, and elected officials. The Nikshay Mitra may select help for additional dietary supplements, diagnostic testing, and vocational training. The Nikshay Mitra has a choice between a one-year and a three-year support period. They can select the state, district, building, and medical facilities. The district TB officer will facilitate the Nikshay Mitra application procedure. On the Ni-kshay website, there are 13.5 lakh TB patients registered, of whom 8.9 lakh active TB patients have approved adoption.

Background of the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan:

With an estimated 26 lac new cases and 4 lac deaths from the disease each year, India has the greatest burden of tuberculosis (TB) in the world. The financial cost of TB in terms of lost lives, income, and working days is also significant. The age group of society that TB typically affects is the most economically productive, which causes a large loss of working days and drives TB sufferers deeper into the pit of poverty.  Currently, 9.26 lac of the 13.5 lac people receiving TB treatment have already agreed to be adopted under the initiative.

Objectives of the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan:

• Increase patient support to help TB patients receive better care.
• Boost community participation in order to fulfill India’s promise to eradicate TB by 2025.
• Utilize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) endeavors.

Initiatives of the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan:

• Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana: It offers patients a direct benefit transfer of Rs. 500 in support. In India, there is a government program that gives tuberculosis patients 500 rupees a month to spend on food. According to the program’s February 2019 report, 3800 persons in the district of Sonitpur and over 10,000 people in Delhi had each received benefits.
• Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission: As part of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission, the government has concentrated on utilizing technology and producing digital health IDs for TB sufferers in order to guarantee access to proper diagnosis and treatment.
• India’s National TB Elimination Program has been reinforced to help the nation reach its 2025 deadline for ending the TB pandemic, which is five years earlier than the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
• The TB Harega Desh Jeetega Campaign: A national campaign is underway to raise public awareness of the TB disease and to compel anyone experiencing TB-related symptoms to consult a doctor and stick with their prescribed course of action.
• The Ni-kshay Ecosystem: It is the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program’s (NTEP) web-enabled patient management system for TB control.
• The National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Tuberculosis Elimination (2017–2025): It serves as a framework to direct the actions of all parties involved in India’s effort to eradicate tuberculosis. It includes the national and state governments, development partners, civil society organisations, international organisations, research institutions, the private sector, and numerous others.
• Universal Immunization Program: It is one of the biggest public health initiatives, with an annual target population of over 2.67 crore infants and 2.9 crore pregnant women. The program now includes vaccinations for 12 diseases, including tuberculosis, and is one of the most cost-effective public health programs. It is substantially responsible for the decrease in the under-5 mortality rate that can be prevented by vaccines.

Challenges of the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan:

• Poor primary healthcare infrastructure: In rural areas of many states, unregulated private health care leads to widespread irrational use of first- and second-line anti-TB drugs. 
• Poverty: A lack of political will, and, most importantly, corrupt administration are major obstacles to TB control in India.
• Non-pulmonary TB specialists are not involved in policy development, program implementation, or peripheral health facilities.

Note: Tuberculosis

The most lethal infectious killer in the world is still TB. Nearly 30,000 individuals get sick with this avoidable and treatable disease every day, and over 4000 people die from it. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a type of bacteria that most frequently affects the lungs, is what causes TB. Through the air, TB can transmit from one person to another. The TB germs are released into the air when patients with TB cough, sneeze or spit. Chest aches, weakness, weight loss, sputum and blood in the cough, fever, and night sweats are some more symptoms. The disease TB is curable and treatable. It is treated with a typical six-month course of four antimicrobial medications, which are given to the patient with information, guidance, and support by a health professional or trained volunteer. Since anti-TB medications have been around for a while, every country investigated has reported strains that are resistant to one or more of the drugs. MDR-TB is a type of tuberculosis brought on by bacteria that are resistant to rifampicin and isoniazid, the two most potent first-line anti-TB medications. Second-line medications can be used to treat and even eradicate MDR-TB. A more serious type of MDR-TB called extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is brought on by germs that do not respond to the best second-line anti-TB medications, frequently leaving patients with no further alternatives for therapy.

Conclusion:

The community and the institutions in society can play a crucial role in filling in the gaps and addressing social determinants, thereby supporting the national aim, even though the government’s efforts are producing notable outcomes. MoHFW is undertaking the “Community Support to TB Patients – Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan” in order to effectively involve the community in the effort to eradicate TB in India. The President reaffirmed the importance of achieving universal health coverage in order to guarantee that everyone has access to high-quality, reasonably priced healthcare at all levels of the healthcare system. If initiatives like these are continued in India, the country would undoubtedly experience development and good health in the future.