Disquiet as govt threatens jail for doctors, chemists not reporting TB

A week after the capital city hosted the Delhi End TB Summit from March 13 to 15, 2018, a notification from India’s health ministry announced that medical practitioners and pharmacists could face a jail term if they fail to notify the government about tuberculosis (TB) patients.

TB has been a notifiable disease since 2012, one that private doctors and laboratories must report to the government’s reporting system for TB called Nikshay. However, there was no punitive provision, and pharmacists or chemists were not included.

Now,