Pharma major Lupin along with Rotary Club, Mumbai, announced a joint anti-TB campaign – on 24 March, marked as World TB Day – to create awareness about TB as well as detect and combat the disease in Mumbai. Under this campaign, TB camps will be conducted across 150 Rotary Clubs in Mumbai. Lupin will ensure adequate resources including trained volunteers and specialists who will assist in detecting and handholding cases at these camps.  


One camp will be held every quarter at each club, resulting in a total of 600 camps across Mumbai in a year. The primary aim is to enhance awareness and ensure timely diagnosis and treatment. In addition, ward-to-ward screening will be done with the support of other partners and groups through an active case-finding approach. The detected cases will be referred to the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) centres in the public sector or a public”private interface agency (PPIA) for free treatment and care.  


It is to be noted that TB is a contagious and airborne disease, and ranks as the second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The incidences of TB have been steadily increasing in the country, with India having the highest burden of TB in the world with an estimated 20 lakh cases annually, which accounts for one-fifth of the global incidence of the disease. Almost 300,000 Indians lose their lives to TB each year, with two people succumbing to TB every three minutes. It is estimated that about 40 per cent of the Indian population is infected with TB bacteria, the vast majority of whom have latent rather than active TB disease. An alarming fact is that a large number of cases actually go undetected. According to World Health Organization (WHO), India tops the list of the world’s missed TB cases – almost 24 per cent of the world’s missed TB cases are from India, while 50 per cent of detected cases are not reported to the National TB Programme (NTP).  


 ‘We are happy that we have found a strong partner in Rotary, who shares our belief that we can fight and combat a menace such as TB. We believe that such efforts and partnering will not only add momentum but also go a long way in ensuring a TB-free Mumbai,’ Dr Dhananjay Bakhle, executive vice-president at Lupin, said.