TB deaths down 12%, but drug-resistant cases on the rise, shows WHO report

In 2015, the WHO said India had double the number of estimated TB deaths-480,000 up from 220,000 in 2014

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that new tuberculosis cases in India fell in 2016, the number of drug-resistant cases increased, showing that India has a growing challenge in its fight against the disease.

Deaths due to tuberculosis (TB) in India fell 12%–from 480,000 in 2015 to 423,000 in 2016, according to estimates from the WHO’s Global Tuberculosis report 2017. The number of new TB cases in 2016 that were drug-resistant–unresponsive to either one or both most potent TB drugs rifampicin and isoniazid–increased by 13%, from 130,000 to 147,000.

Drug-resistant TB takes