Overview
- India’s health ministry, which marked World TB Day on Tuesday, launched a 100-day TB Mukt Bharat phase to cover 1.58 lakh villages and urban wards using locally tailored micro‑plans.
- Officials said the drive will deploy about 2,000 AI‑enabled handheld X‑ray devices, confirm diagnoses with rapid molecular tests, and issue the Rs 1,000 monthly nutrition benefit within 15 days of diagnosis.
- Building on earlier gains, the programme reports screening over 20 crore vulnerable people since December 2024 and finding 32.65 lakh cases, including 10.9 lakh without classic symptoms thanks to symptom‑agnostic screening.
- Pakistan’s government and WHO highlighted an estimated 669,000 people affected and 51,000 deaths each year, urged use of 2,031 free treatment sites, and faced calls for stronger domestic financing as daily tolls near 1,800 new cases and 140 deaths.
- Treatment advances are spreading, with the six‑month all‑oral BPaLM regimen for drug‑resistant TB improving outcomes in India and South Africa reporting better success rates, while city data from Mumbai show stronger diagnostics and care yet steady new infections.