According to an official document, the country’s TB treatment coverage has also expanded in the last decade, rising from 53 per cent in 2015 to 92 per cent in 2024.
Photo: ANI
India has recorded a significant drop in new TB cases emerging in the country each year, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
From 237 cases per lakh population in 2015, the country’s toll of disease incidence dropped to 187 per lakh population in 2024, registering a decline of 21 per cent. The ministry, citing data from the World Health Organisation’s Global TB Report 2025, noted that India’s decline is almost double the pace of the drop observed globally at 12 per cent.
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According to an official document, the country’s TB treatment coverage has also expanded in the last decade, rising from 53 per cent in 2015 to 92 per cent in 2024.
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Highlighting the success of India’s innovative diagnostic services, the ministry pointed out that out of an estimated incidence of 27 lakh cases, 26.18 lakh TB patients were diagnosed in 2024, bringing down the number of the “missing cases” – those who had TB but were not reported. The “missing cases” numbers in 2024 stood at less than one lakh, in contrast to the estimated figures of 15 lakhs in 2015.
Health ministry officials drew attention to India’s TB elimination programme in improving the treatment success rate, which touched 90 per cent, ahead of the global treatment success rate of 88 per cent. With improved treatments, the fatality rates have fallen from 28 per lakh population in 2015 to 21 per lakh population in 2024, the ministry underlined.
The ministry attributed the drop in new TB cases to a proactive approach taken by the government, exploiting the nation’s large TB laboratory network comprising 9391 rapid molecular testing facilities and 107 culture & drug susceptibility testing laboratories.
Further, the officials stated that over 500 AI-enabled handheld chest x-ray units are available across the country, with an additional 1,500 machines being delivered to the States/UTs to bolster community screening efforts for TB disease elimination.
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