EVENTS

A two day dialogue was held between Chinese and Indian public health scholars, practitioners and policy makers on Strategies for Tuberculosis Control in China and India at the School of Social Sciences, JNU on the 7th and 8th of March 2016. This was jointly organised by ICS and CSMCH, JNU and was supported by the ICSSR and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The Chinese scholars and policy makers were from Fudan School of Public Health, Shanghai and Centre for Disease Control, Beijing. Dr. Soumya Swamniathan, Director-General, ICMR gave the keynote address. 

China and India embarked on a new strategy to control TB from the 1990s with the implementation of DOTS strategy. After more than two decades, TB remains a public health concern for both countries. In fact, of the estimated total TB burden in 2013, India and China alone accounted for more than one-third (37%) of total TB cases (22% and 15% respectively). Poverty, socio-economic inequalities, dense populations, high rural to urban migration, undernutrition and inequalities in health systems across states /provinces, pose major challenges for TB control in both these countries.

The dialogue covered the following domains that are critical to TB control in both countries:

Structure, organisation and financing of TB control programme

Social determinants of TB control: social and programmatic challenges, undernutrition and TB

Operational research in TB: Case of TB and diabetes co-morbidity

Human resources

Rising cases of drug resistant TB