Bhubaneswar: When as many as eight die of tuberculosis (TB) in every 24 hours in Odisha, the diabolical omen for the State is the big drop in successful treatment rate last year.
Odisha, which figured among the top-10 TB mortality states in country, has recorded a big drop in successful treatment to 59 per cent from 72 per cent in 2017 and 89 per cent in 2016.
Significantly, the cure rate in Odisha stood at around 50 per cent, which is much below the national average cure rate of 63 per cent.
Moreover, a massive 2,457 persons have succumbed to TB in Odisha in 2017, which is higher than 2,036 deaths in 2016. And the lethal fact is TB has emerged as the top killer in Odisha since 2016.
Such an ominous portend in TB treatment was to the fore in the recently released report National Health profile - 2018.
The fall in treatment rate has been primarily attributed to poor performance in as many as six districts. While Mayurbhanj topped the State with over 5,000 TB cases, Ganjam finished second. When the successful treatment rate in Mayurbhanj had been 50 per cent in 2018, Ganjam recorded only 47 per cent. Sambalpur with 32 per cent successful treatment rate was at the bottom.
Other poor performers are: Rayagada, Nayagarh and Sundergarh. All have a treatment rate of below 50 per cent.
Significantly, the State has also seen a dip in notification rate in 2018. A total of 50,303 patients have registered for treatment in the State vis-a-vis 67,162 in 2017. Data further revealed that of total notified cases in 2018, a high of 85 per cent were new TB patients and around 12 per cent are recurrent TB cases (means patients that were earlier treated and cured). Around 2 per cent TB cases have HIV infection.
While pulmonary TB cases (means TB affecting lungs) account for a lion’s share of 80 per cent in Odisha, extra-pulmonary TB (TB affecting organs/tissues other than lungs) cases constitute 20 per cent.
While Deogarh and Nabarangpur have 94 per cent pulmonary TB cases, more than one-third of the new TB cases in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur are diagnosed as extra-pulmonary TB. Paediatric TB cases were around 5 per cent of total notified cases in 2018, but Capital city Bhubaneswar topped with 12 per cent paediatric TB cases, latest data showed.
District-wise details reveal that Gajapati has the highest incidence of 275/lakh/year in State and is followed by Mayurbhanj, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Sundergarh.