World Tuberculosis Day 2022: Mumbai’s Lifestyle A Reason For Its TB Cases?

The burden of Tuberculosis (TB) in India is high and rising, over 2 million Indians developed TB in 2013, and around 278,000 people in the country die from the disease every year which is nearly 30 an hour.

TB not only affects health but the loss of earnings and cost of treatment forces many people deeper into poverty.

In 2018, 1.7 billion people were infected by TB bacteria which is roughly 23 per cent of the world's population. TB is the leading infectious disease killer in the world, claiming 1.5 million lives each year.

As is well known most TB cases are caused by inhaling the bacteria. People can get TB when an infected person coughs, sneezes speaks, sings, or laughs.

Poor living conditions, crowded transportation system and lack of primary sanitization facilities are some reasons why it is spreading rapidly in India.

Dr Harish Chafle, Senior Consultant - Pulmonology and Critical Care at Global Hospitals in Parel, Mumbai, said, “Although tuberculosis is contagious, it's not easy to diagnose active TB in many patients. That’s how a person with active TB keeps on wandering around in the society without knowing that he has active TB and keeps on spreading unknowingly.”

On the other hand, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) succeeded in detecting 58,642 cases of infectious disease in 2021, matching its pre-pandemic target and recording a 34 per cent increase over 2020.

It has been reported that the detection of TB cases has reduced by almost 28 per cent in 2020 with 43,464 people identified with the illness as compared to 2019 when a total of 60,597 TB patients were detected in Mumbai.

Additionally, the number of TB-related deaths also marked a decline in 2021 with 2,380 fatalities and a fatality rate of 4 per cent. In 2020, despite fewer TB cases detected, the fatality rate had shot up to 6.3 per cent with 2,752 deaths as compared to 2019 when 3,059 deaths were recorded with a fatality rate of 5 per cent.

Chafle added, “TB cases being detected in Mumbai are on the rise now because the population density is high. There are instances where about 10 members of one family stay in closed spaces. The main public transport of Mumbai, its local train is always overloaded with citizens. This way even if one active case of TB is present in the train others are bound to get affected.”

Chafle also believes that due to the fast lifestyle of Mumbai, people’s immunity goes down due to inadequate food intake on time which makes them more prone to acquiring infections like TB.

However, there persists light at the end of the tunnel. Chafle recommends ways that Mumbaikars can ensure they don't catch the disease:

• Efforts need to be made to identify the active cases of TB as soon as someone develops these symptoms.
• Everyone with possible symptoms of TB needs to get tested.
• Public education about the disease’s symptoms.
• Citizens should take care of their health, have correct food habits, eat a healthy balanced diet on time and do a preventive health check every 6 months once they are above the age of 40.
• Those diagnosed with TB need to take medicines on time and follow the advice given by their physician and not stop the treatment unless told by the treating chest physician.

If all follow these simple steps then we can avert catching this disease, uttered Chafle.