Tuberculosis Grips Karnataka, 837 New Cases

The TB grip over our nation refuses to weaken, the latest confirmed victim being the state of Karnataka, which is completely enveloped with the TB epidemic. In the state, 837 new cases of tuberculosis have been detected in a single week starting July 17 by the Karnataka government's active case finding initiative. The reported TB cases were from 11 districts. Amongst all these cases, around 5% to 6% of the cases detected were those of children, as said by the state health department officials.

From the 837 cases, 218 new cases were reported from Belagavi, the highest number whereas Ramanagara had only 11 new cases, the fewest. Bengaluru city recorded 52 new tuberculosis cases. Six Karnataka districts have been declared highly susceptible to TB and have been called tuberculosis-prone areas, these are - Vijayapura, Bidar, Ballari, Belagavi, Bagalkot and Koppal.

A thorough and door to door screening by the health officials confirmed the new TB Cases. An analysis of the TB cases gives us another picture, the weekly average of new tuberculosis cases per district is somewhere around 20 and 25.

The most common type of TB found was pulmonary tuberculosis. The slums, rural areas, old age homes, prisons, asylums and night shelters in urban areas had the highest likelihood of becoming a TB hotspot. In 2016, Karnataka had recorded a total of 42,869 tuberculosis cases, of which 24,070 were new pulmonary tuberculosis cases. The death rate for overall tuberculosis cases was 6%.

With the already rampant situation of the Swine Flu virus in the nation, which has affected 12,460 people and caused 600 deaths in the first half of 2017, the rising TB cases don't paint a pretty picture and the health officials need to tackle and solve this crisis as soon as possible.

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