Maha identifies over 42K new TB cases during 100-day campaign

In a step closer to the government’s goal of making India Tuberculosis-free by 2025, the public health department has identified 42,175 new Tuberculosis (TB) cases during its 100-day special TB elimination campaign, officials said on Friday.

The TB elimination campaign was conducted under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) from December 7, 2024 to March 24, 2025 and covered 17 rural districts and 13 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. As many as 13,861,346 individuals in the state were screened for TB during the campaign, officials said.

As per the official data, the highest number of new TB cases (15,186) were found in Mumbai; followed by 2,505 new TB cases in the Thane Municipal Corporation area; and 2,041 new TB cases in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation area. The lowest number of new TB cases were found in Ahilya Nagar (234); whereas 269 new cases were found in Sindhudurg; and 410 new cases in Amravati. Besides, 606,962 people were screened for TB in Pimpri-Chinchwad with 804 out of them being diagnosed with TB.

Dr Sandeep Sangale, joint director (TB and leprosy), Maharashtra, said that the objectives of the campaign were to accelerate TB patient detection, reduce TB mortality rates, curb TB transmission, and prevent new cases. “To ensure early detection, the campaign focused on high-risk communities where the healthcare workers actively screened people for TB symptoms. Suspected cases were provided free diagnostic tests like X-ray and NAAT for quick confirmation of the infection,” he said.

Dr Sangale further said that to make the campaign successful, doctors from AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) were also sensitised to identify TB symptoms in their patients. “Health officials collaborated with multiple departments to ensure maximum public participation in the programme,” he said.