PANAJI
Goa has seen rising cases of deaths due to tuberculosis (TB) in the past three years. According to a reply in the Lok Sabha, Goa has reported 336 TB cases in the past three years and the number of deaths in 2022 has increased notably as compared to 2021.
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharti Pawar said Goa saw 72 TB deaths in 2020, 89 in 2021 while the figure jumped to a high of 175 in the year 2022.
Asthma, allergy and chest specialist Dr Hardatt Karande feels that delay in seeking treatment during Covid times may be the reason behind higher deaths in 2021 and 2022.
“The effect of Covid virus on immune system has increased the cases of TB after Covid. I have noticed that pulmonary cases are on the rise. Most people of low socio-economic class go to government sector and that may be the reason for increase in TB patients in the last two years,” says Dr Karande.
Attributing this rise to two things, chest physician and surgeon Dr Sandip Naik, secretary, Indian Medical Association, Goa State opined that due to the Covid the immunity of the persons was compromised, and the TB bacteria known to reside within our body in a dormant state, got activated when immunity reduced.
During Covid there was a definite increase in tuberculosis, Dr Naik said, adding, “this has now reduced substantially”.
Associate professor Department of Pulmonary Medicine at GMC Dr Uday Kakodkar said, “if the primary cause of death is TB, it will always be mentioned as TB death. Secondly Covid deaths will be included as Covid deaths. If patient has TB and develops Covid then it is counted as one death only”.
Another veteran surgeon Dr Sanjay Khope feels that the cause of flare could be depressed immunity. “As the TB that has surfaced due to low immunity, cases of resistant TB are on the rise. Standard TB treatment is not effective in such cases and stronger medicines are to be administered”, he said.
A senior medical officer from the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) stated, “In 2019, Goa detected 2391 cases; in 2020 the number was 1669, whereas in 2021 it was 2012 and in 2022 it was 2090. In the same years, the deaths due to TB have doubled from 5% in 2019 to 10% in 2022. For 2020 and 2021 it was 7%. We are studying the reasons for this increase and have started having monthly meetings to ponder on the issue.”
However, there was a silver lining for South Goa, where there has been 20% reduction in the incidents of TB cases as compared to 2015.
Senior chest physician at South Goa District Hospital, Margao Dr Govind Desai admits that Covid infection had weakened the lungs and partly this is also one reason for TB deaths.
