New scheme to sponsor TB patients’ food as India struggles with high infection load

Struggling to achieve its TB elimination target, the Union Health Ministry on Friday launched a new-look campaign inviting citizens, non-governmental organisations and the corporate sector to sponsor monthly food baskets for TB patients who require good quality nutrition to tame the infection.

The community participation to lower India’s TB burden also involves seeking support to diagnose the disease and looking for funds for nutritional supplements as well as for supporting vocational training for family members.

The Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan that seeks to eliminate TB by 2025 comes at a time when India is finding it hard to achieve its own elimination targets set up five years ago.

The Union Health Ministry had set a target of having an incidence of 142 TB cases per 100,000 population in 2020, which should further decline to 77 in 2023 and 44 in 2025. This lies at the core of the Centre’s plan of eliminating TB by 2025.

In reality, the incidence achieved in 2020 was 188 – nowhere close to the target.

"While India has a little less than 20 per cent of the world's population, it has more than 25 per cent of the total TB patients of the world. This is a matter of concern. Of all the infectious diseases, the maximum number of deaths occur due to TB,” President Droupadi Murmu said, launching the scheme.

The programme offers the citizens, legislators, institutions, NGOs and business houses to adopt TB patients for taking care of the food and nutrition requirements. There are identified food baskets for adults and parents, which the sponsor can fund through the district-level officials managing the TB programme.

For example, a typical monthly package involves three kilograms of cereals and millets, 1.5 kg of pulses, 250 gm of vegetable oil and six litres of milk (or one kg milk powder). This costs around Rs 1000 per month. For non-vegetarians, 30 eggs are added to the list. There is a truncated package for children and patients can opt for ground-nuts in place of milk.

Research has identified under-nutrition in adults as a key factor behind India’s high TB burden. "Undernutrition is the leading risk factor contributing to more than half of new cases in India,” said veteran TB researcher Anurag Bhargava at Yenepoya Medical College, Mangalore.

“Most cases of TB in India can be prevented if nutritional levels are improved among the poor and most deaths can be prevented if the patients received more comprehensive care inclusive of nutritional support.”

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said out of 13.5 lakh TB patients registered in an official portal, 8.9 lakh gave their consent for adoption. Nearly 31,000 declined.

Irrespective of a TB patient’s adoption status, the existing scheme of providing Rs 500 to every TB patient every month for nutrition support would continue.