New Delhi, Dec 7 : Early detection of tuberculosis (TB) in India has significantly improved with easy access to diagnostics being provided at more than 1.7 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, said Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda on Saturday.

He said this while launching the intensified 100-Day TB elimination campaign in Haryana's Panchkula today.

The campaign, to be implemented in 347 most affected districts across the country, aims to find and treat missing TB cases, especially in high-risk groups, and reduce TB deaths significantly.

'Today TB is detected early, thanks to the network of over 1.7 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs across the country,' said the Union Health Minister, informing that many new strategies were taken to make TB services patient-friendly and decentralised.

The campaign comes as India seeks to end TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target of 2030.

Nadda said the campaign reflects the 'government's unwavering commitment to end TB' and stated that it will give a new momentum to the goal of TB-Mukt Bharat (TB-free India)".

The Minister further informed that in the last 10 years, the government has also significantly scaled up diagnostic services.

'The number of laboratories increased from 120 in 2014 to 8,293 laboratories today,' he said.

'There was a time when TB was considered as a 'slow death' and even family members suffering from TB were separated and isolated to prevent its spread. And since 1962, there have been many campaigns against TB, but, in 2018 the Prime Minister made the vision to end

TB much before the 2030 deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals,' Nadda noted.

The campaign aims to increase case detection through intensified case-finding drives using advanced screening and diagnostic technologies to reduce delays in diagnosis and treatment initiation.

Besides early detection, the campaign will also be expanded to reduce mortality due to TB, Nadda said.

The programme will open the doors 'to novel initiatives such as the Differentiated TB Care to provide specialised care for high-risk patients and increased nutritional support through Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana', he explained.

Further, to counter drug-sensitive TB, the Union Government introduced a daily regimen including a new shorter, and more effective regimen.

This 'has improved the TB treatment success rate to 87 per cent,' Nadda said.

He also lauded the government's move to make it mandatory for even private practitioners to notify any new TB patients so that their treatment can be followed up immediately.

'This might look like a small step but it has led to an 8-fold increase in the rate of TB notifications in the private sector,' Nadda stated.

He also highlighted that the rate of TB decline in India has doubled from 8.3 per cent in 2015 to 17.7 per cent today which is much ahead of the global average. He also informed that deaths due to TB have also reduced significantly in India by 21.4 per cent in the last 10 years.

/IANS