PANAJI
Akin to global trends of rising threat of TB (tuberculosis) post the pandemic, Goa too has recorded increasing cases and deaths in the last three-and-half years.
According to information furnished by the Union Minister of State for Health, Bharti Pawar in the Rajya Sabha, Goa has reported 6,640 new TB (tuberculosis) patients and 429 deaths due to the disease between 2020 and now.
Also, the data indicates a new pattern of the 14 to 44 age group being vulnerable to TB.
Pawar's reply to a written question in the Rajya Sabha has revealed that in 2020, 1,660 TB cases were detected in Goa and 72 people died of it that year.
In 2021, there was a steep increase in the number of new TB patients with 2,018 cases reported and the disease claiming the lives of 89 more victims.
The increase in the number of TB cases in 2022 may not have been as steep as in the previous year but the number of deaths almost doubled to 175.
This year up to June 30, Goa has reported 871 new TB patients and the same trend of high fatalities at 93, Pawar's written reply revealed.
Meanwhile, another striking feature of the data provided in Rajya Sabha by Pawar indicates that the disease is targeting citizens in the age group of 14 to 44 and 45 to 64.
However, fatalities are higher among the older patients -- those above 64 years of age, Pawar's reply states.
Cough, blood in sputum, chest pain, fever, night sweats, weakness and weight loss are some of the symptoms of the disease.
The rising trend of TB incidence after decades is being partly blamed in scientific papers on the interruptions to TB-related public health interventions because of the Covid-19 pandemic,
The pandemic-induced decrease in socio-economic opportunity for marginalized populations globally is another reason cited.
According to the World Health Organisation, in 2021 alone, 1.6 million died from TB worldwide and an estimated 10.6 million people contracted the disease -- six million men, 3.4 million women and 1.2 million children.
"TB is present in all countries and age groups but is curable and preventable. It is the 13th leading cause of death and the second leading infectious killer after Covid-19 (above HIV and AIDS)," WHO says.
