Why India should use private pharmacies in its war on Tuberculosis

Nearly 2.2 million - or around 50% - TB patients in India seek treatment in the private sector

India has over 850,000 private pharmacies or chemists nationwide; yet, only 9% of them–not enough to have a larger public-health impact–have been engaged in efforts to control tuberculosis (TB), according to a January 2017 paper published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Practice and Policy.

The paper, Engagement of the private pharmaceutical sector for TB control: rhetoric or reality?, reviewed public-private mix interventions to fight TB and analysed global-level documents from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Stop TB Partnership in five phases from 2003 to