A new quantitative method to estimate annual incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in India by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has depicted a clear urban rural divide for the infectious disease. "We developed a simple model of TB transmission dynamics to estimate the annual incidence of TB disease from the annual risk of tuberculous infection and prevalence of smear-positive TB. We first compared model estimates for annual infections per smear-positive TB case using previous empirical estimates from China, Korea and the Philippines. We then applied the model to estimate TB incidence in India, stratified by urban and rural settings," he said. As India aims to eliminate TB by 2025, the Union Health Ministry has made it mandatory for hospitals and clinics to notify all TB cases.

Source: dna March 23, 2017 02:25 UTC