Elimination of tuberculosis by 2025, an Indian perspective

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) is the pathogen that causes tuberculosis (TB). Although TB is avoidable and curable, it has become a significant worldwide burden. Approximately one-fourth of all TB cases occur in India. TB is an urgent health care challenge and requires effective and well-planned actions to control and eliminate. It continues to occur in India due to issues with the healthcare infrastructure, including an overburdened system caused by a high number of cases, inadequate diagnostic facilities, and a shortage of healthcare staff. The community-level contributing factors include poverty, malnutrition, stigma surrounding TB, limited awareness among the public and healthcare workers about the infection, delay in healthcare-seeking behavior, poor hygiene, and overcrowding. Both pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB infections can occur. While it primarily affects the lungs, pulmonary TB has the potential to spread to any organ, resulting in extrapulmonary TB. In a country with a high population density, such as India, the M. tuberculosis disseminates more rapidly owing to its predominant mode of airborne transmission. Besides its medical expenses, TB imposes a social burden on the nation, leading to family financial hardships, infection-related illness and death, and eventual economic impacts. The Indian government launched the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP), aiming to eliminate TB by 2025, 5 years ahead of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) worldwide objective of TB elimination by 2030. Every year, TB deaths cause millions of families to suffer, which has a major effect on the nation’s overall social and economic advancement. Since TB was originally discovered, India has been actively working to manage the infection, which continues to be a major public health concern. A multisectoral strategy that involves all facets of government and international cooperation, identifying the gaps, meeting the needs of the general public, and limiting the transmission can hasten the process and help India accomplish the goal. This perspective looks at the current status, the government’s initiatives, obstacles to TB elimination, and offers workable solutions because there is no realistic chance that India will be able to eliminate the disease by 2025.