The G20 conclave in Goa defined the focus areas on health and addressed the challenges of the 21st century, with India putting forth its priorities and contribution to global health. Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawan spoke on how India strives to build resilient healthcare delivery systems accompanied by robust delivery and equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. The stress on day one was on critical areas such as collaborative surveillance, community protection and emergency coordination.
On day two, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya reiterated India's commitment to end tuberculosis by 2025, five years before the global deadline of 2030. Goa briefly became the centre of attention when Mandaviya lauded the health facilities in Goa. "One health and wellness centre is available for every 5,000 to 6,000 people in Goa and health centres in the State have facilities to detect and undertake preliminary treatment of common cancers," he said.
While Goa deserves credit for its healthcare, the high cases of tuberculosis infections and deaths in recent times remain a cause for concern and cast a shadow over the national deadline for eradication by 2025. According to data submitted in the Lok Sabha earlier this month, Goa reported 336 tuberculosis deaths in the past three years. In 2022, 175 people died; in 2021 and 2020, the toll was 89 and 72, respectively.
The sudden spurt in TB-related deaths has been attributed to Covid infecting the immune system and causing weakness of the lungs. However, TB has a track record in Goa, even before the onset of Covid.
Medical data shows that in 2019, Goa had 2,391 registered cases of TB. In the two subsequent years, it went down to 1,669 and 2,021. The infection may have tapered, but deaths have doubled from 2019 to 2022.
While Goa has been making giant strides in the super-speciality line of treatments and boasts of state-of-the-art facilities with an allocation of Rs 2,324.6 crore to the health sector in the recent budget, eradication of tuberculosis will remain a significant challenge in the next two years. The infrastructural upgrade and healthcare have not shown any cascading effect on the disease in the past few years, indicating that the State health sector will need to refocus.
Goa must scale up strategies and plans and devise thematic area-wise interventions with operational targets for each constituency. The problem in Goa is that it has a high percentage of the population with co-morbidities and other lifestyle diseases. Also, there is a common perception that TB infection is not self-reported due to the societal stigma attached. Therefore, concerted community awareness and effort will go a long way in tackling the issue.
We hope that Goa takes TB seriously and treats it as a priority by taking positive steps towards eradication and fulfilling India's objective of 2025. Moreover, the State has to be mindful and not be swayed by the optics of reaching milestones and touching the finish line first of national missions like the "Har Ghar Jal" that eventually proved to be a farce. Providing a false sense of accomplishment against a disease would be a grave injustice to mankind.
