Indore: TB Cases Rise In 2023, Doctors Attribute It To Increased Awareness

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): With the increasing awareness of TB cases, the Health Department could trace over 9,476 new patients of the contagious disease in 2023. The number of new cases was higher by 804 cases when compared to the patients recorded in year 2022 i.e. 8,674. Similarly, the department has already found 2,231 new cases of TB.

According to District TB Officer Dr Shailendra Jain, out of 9476 cases found in 2023, about 231 cases were of multi-drug resistance TB. “We have launched a door-to-door campaign to find new TB cases by conducting contact tracing of the patients found in 2022.

The increase in number of patients reflects the increase in awareness among people,” he said. Jain added that the major reason for increasing cases of TB, especially MDR TB, is that many patients do not take the full course of treatment and stop taking medicine after a couple of months due to which the resistance against drug develops in the body.“When we talk about numbers, over 30 per cent people leave the treatment midway,” he added. 

The health official also informed that 76 gram panchayats had applied to get the tag of TB Free under the TB Free India campaign and 71 of them were successfully declared TB Free.

TB is not just a lung disease

According to experts, patients have the misconception that TB is a disease of the lungs only. “TB can occur in any part of the body. Generally, TB is identified by symptoms like bleeding from the mouth, fever at night and frequent cough. The disease can take place in other parts of the body like the stomach, spinal cord, bone, and brain and it is called extrapulmonary TB,” the experts said.

Number of patients in last few years

Year Number of patients

2015 8812

2016 9836

2017 9056

2018 10696

2019 13062

2020 7565

2021 8590

2022 8674

2023 9476

Leaving treatment midway may be fatal “Patients should not leave the treatment midway as it may worsen the condition and even prove fatal. Advance medicines have reduced the time of cure of the disease.”

Dr Sanjay Awasiya

In-charge, MRTB