Massive Effort Campaign
Tuberculosis Control Report Card for India

On World TB Day, the Massive Effort Campaign, in partnership with Results International, the National Centre for Advocacy Studies and Saahasee, launched the TB Report Card detailing which Indian states are currently meeting cure targets, which are close, and which are not even in class. Dr. Bobby John, Director of Massive Effort India, noted that, "The marks on this report card are not academic, they are truly a matter of life and death."

The launch took place at the Indian International Centre in New Delhi on March 24, 2003. Press coverage of the event was carried in most major newspapers and on several television news programs, including Doordarshan, the national broadcaster, Star News, CNBC, Zee TV and the regional language networks. India Today, the largest English-language weekly, and Lancet have also written stories on the report card.

The Government of India has made good progress combating tuberculosis. In 1997, India changed its national TB strategy to focus primarily on expanding DOTS treatment. Current government figures show that 550 million Indians have access to DOTS treatment. The government hopes to increase this number by 400 million over the next 18 months. To accomplish this ambitious goal, numerous states will have to dramatically scale up their DOTS programs. Currently, many states do not even have a DOTS program.

More information on the TB Report Card for India can be found at http://www.massiveeffort.org/html/tb_report_card.html

Back to Home Page - Back to Main WTBD'03 Page