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Low investments made our public health systems fragile
Zafar Bhat. Dated: 6/22/2018 11:14:39 AM
Zafar Bhat
Jammu, June 21
Categorically tuberculosis (TB) is one of the biggest scourges of modern India as well as among its toughest public health problems, while the problem is on the surge in Jammu and Kashmir also due to the poor public health system for which directly or indirectly State Government is responsible.
Unfortunately, according to the WHO and India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) both, about 2.8 million people contract TB in India every year. About 87,000 of them are co-infected with HIV.
Moreover, from compiled sources it is acknowledged that not only does the disease affect the health, employment and economic condition of the patients, it also kills almost 480,000 people per year (about 1,400 per day). In recent years, India has also become home to the largest numbers of people suffering from multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB: about 147,000 people have the MDR strain. Whereas, it is illustrated government abject failure in controlling the rise and spread of TB among its citizens is necessary beyond budgetary allocations for the control of communicable diseases (which includes TB). Despite the huge and uncontrolled problem of TB in country and State, the presence of a well-designed and costed plan for controlling it, vocal political commitment and an acknowledgment that more money is needed for it to bear fruit, the 2018 Union budget suggests that the finance ministry simply turned a deaf year.
Notably, Poverty leads to TB and TB worsens poverty. Poverty alleviation requires TB control. The annual economic loss to India on account of uncontrolled TB was assessed by the government at $23.7 billion, while RNTCP’s budget is only $200 million. A redesigned RNTCP deserves at least $1 billion. TB control is at once a humanitarian service, human rights entitlement and investment in socio-economic development. The RNTCP leadership has to get back to the drawing board to redesign TB control.