India failing to tackle ‘massive TB crisis’: British Medical Journal
India is failing to tackle a tuberculosis epidemic because of chronic shortages of funds and the government's inability to regulate an “exploitive” private health sector, an article in the British Medical Journal said. The article, published ahead of World Tuberculosis Day on Tuesday, called for a massive investment in public health infrastructure to diagnose and treat what it called India's biggest health crisis. India accounts for an estimated 2.2 million of the 8.6 million new cases of tuberculosis that occur globally each year and harbours more than twice as many cases as any other country, according to the World Health Organization. The article by Zarir F Udwadia, a doctor at one of Mumbai's biggest private hospitals, said the government's TB programme was failing to monitor the country's burgeoning private health sector.