India has 30 p c of world's TB cases

India has 30 p c of world's TB cases
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

CHENNAI, MARCH 30: India has the largest number of tuberculosis cases in the world, Union Planning Commission Member K Venkatakrishnan said Thursday quoting a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.

Addressing mediapersons on his return from a WHO conference on TB eradication at Amsterdam, he said while India has 30 per cent of TB cases, China which also has a large population has 15 per cent, Indonesia 10 per cent, Bangladesh and Pakistan four per cent each, Phillipines and Nigeria three per cent each, South Africa two per cent and Russia one per cent. Armed with these statistics, the Central Government will be advised to evolve a comprehensive plan for health and education, he said. Pointing out that TB was a major killer with one victim dying every minute, he said statistics showed that 16 per cent of TB-infected persons contracted HIV too.

While the country will be touching the 100 crore population limit on May 11, he said he eill be meeting State Health Minister Arcot Veerasamy soon for consultations on conducting a major health education campaign in Tamil Nadu's schools.

The Education Development Index (EDI) that the Planning Commission had undertaken was complete and will be tabled in Parliament soon. Kerala stood first in the Index followed by Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab and Arunachal Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh came seventh.

Next year's index would include the pass percentage among students, information on Backward Classes, SC/STs and minorities.

Commenting on the alarming rate of dropouts from professional courses including medical and engineering which amounted to six to eight per cent of the total students who joined, he said surprisingly there were no girl dropouts. The reason for the drop out rate was the low quality of college and University education, bad selection and ill-equipped staff. The situation called for a total renovation of the education system, he said.