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One-fifth of world`s TB cases in India

In a grim statistics for the country, India has reported nearly 1.4 million TB cases in the year 2006 contributing to one-fifth of the total global cases. In 2005, more than 3.2 lakh deaths were reported due to tuberculosis in the country, a report said.

New Delhi, March 24: In a grim statistics for the country, India has reported nearly 1.4 million TB cases in the
year 2006 contributing to one-fifth of the total global cases. In 2005, more than 3.2 lakh deaths were reported due to tuberculosis in the country, a report said. The country continued to report high morbidity and mortality due to tuberculosis and as many as 1.39 million cases were reported in 2006, according to a report on tuberculosis in the Southeast Asia region by the WHO. The pace to control the disease slowed slightly in 2006 majorly due to India and China which accounted for 63 per cent of the new cases in the past year, the report released on the occasion of World TB Day said today. According to Nani Nair, India is not really lagging behind as far as reporting TB cases was concerned. "In India a large number of patients are getting treated from private practioners whose number goes unrecorded". There is an increase from 9.1 million cases in 2005, due to population growth. India, China, Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria rank first to fifth respectively in terms of absolute number of cases. The African region has the highest incidence rate per capita, the report said adding there were an estimated 14.4 million prevalent cases of TB in 2006. An estimated 1.5 million people died from TB in 2006. In addition, another 2,00,000 people with HIV died from HIV-associated TB, the report said. Bureau Report