1. Critical Review of
RNTCP
Dr. Abhishek Tiwari

2. Maximum annual deaths than any other infectious disease in
the industrialized world
Most frequent cause of death for young adults
New outbreaks are increasing after almost 40 years of a steady
decline2 billion people (1/3 of the world's population) exposed
to TB
> 8 million cases & 2 million deaths annually
Rajyaroga (king of diseases) in ancient text
Global Burden
8/22/20132

3. 2 million develop TB & 5,00,000 die annually
> 1000 die of TB every day (2 every 3 minutes)
HIV , major risk factor for TB has already infected 4.8
million
Emergence of MDR-TB has added to TB epidemic
An untreated patient can infect 10-15 persons each year
TB Burden India
8/22/20133

4. Poorly treated patients develop drug-resistant and
potentially-incurable TB
A major barrier to economic development
> 300,000 children forced to leave school ,parents have TB
> 100,000 women with TB are rejected by their families
Tragic because TB is nearly 100% curable
TB Burden India
8/22/20134

5. Started in 1997
Lepra-India , NGO supporting under “Sahayog” & “Akshaya”
project to IEC & BCC activities in 12 districts
Catholic Bishop Conference of India & IMA also
Population covered 424 lakhs
Suspects examined in 2012 : 226305
Diagnosed new cases : 29728
Trained staff , MO 81 % & para staff 87 %
Laboratory : ILR Cuttack & RMRC Bhubaneswar
Odisha
8/22/20135

6. Back ground
Year Comments
1962 NTCP30 % diagnosed & 30 % treated
1993 pilot testing based on DOTS Strategy
1998 – 2005 RNTCP I Launched as a NP expanded in
1998
2000 30 %
2002 50 %
2003 778 million
2004 997 million
2005 1080 million 97 %
24th March 2006 Entire Country
2006 – 2010 RNTCP II 8/22/20136

7. 1. Evaluated 55 million & initiated treatment 15.8 million
2. Prevention of mortality : >2.8 million lives
3. National coverage ( unreached areas )
4. Well on track to achieve the MDG of halting & beginning to
reverse the spread of the disease
5. With NACP III : expanded joint TB/HIV services
6. RNTCP conforms to ISTC prescribed standards
7. All Medical colleges involved
Achievements of RNTCP:
8/22/20137

8. 78, 67,194 TB suspects examined for SSM
14, 67,585 initiated on treatment
Case detection rate of New Smear Positive TB was 68%
Treatment success rate of 88%
81,482 pediatric TB cases , accounting for 7% of all cases
8, 21,807 (56%) TB patients tested HIV
44,063 (5%) were positive
92% HIV infected TB patients were initiated on CPT and 74% ART
Achievements of RNTCP: 2012
8/22/20138

9. 8/22/20139

10. CTD & NIC develop a Case Based Web application : Nikshay to
improve TB surveillance
Notifiable disease on 7th May 2012 (trace contacts)
The revision of the OR agenda in 2012
The “National Standing Committee” was renamed as “National
Research Committee”
Ban on serological test
New initiatives in 2012
8/22/201310

11. 6.3 million treated (1997-2006)
Health benefit of 29.2 million DALYs gained including 1.3 million deaths averted
2006, burden of TB = 14.4 million DALYs (1.8 times higher) in absence RNTCP
8/22/201311

12. Theme : “Universal Access for quality diagnosis and
treatment for all TB patients in the community”
Target : “reaching the unreached”
Focus : early & complete detection of all cases (DR-TB ,HIV-TB)
Increase involvement of private sector
Higher commitment
4 fold increase in budget
RNTCP : NSP 2012-17 , 12th FYP
8/22/201312

13. Vision: “TB-free India - through achieving Universal Access by
provision of quality diagnosis and treatment for all TB patients
in the community”
Goal: to decrease the morbidity and mortality by early
diagnosis and early treatment to all TB cases thereby cutting
the chain of transmission
RNTCP : NSP 2012-17 , 12th FYP
8/22/201313

14. Early detection & Rx of 90% cases (DR-TB & HIV-TB)
Rx 90% of new TB patients, 85% of previously-treated
Reduce default rate : new TB cases to < 5%
re-treatment TB cases to < 10%
Initial screening of all re-treatment smear-positive till 2015
All Smear positive TB patients by 2017 for DR-TB
Provision of treatment for MDR-TB
Offer of HIV Counseling and testing for all patients
Link HIV-infected TB patients to HIV care
Extend RNTCP services to patients in private sector
Objectives
8/22/201314

15. Detection , treatment of about 87 lakh TB patients
At least 2 lakh MDR-TB
Reduction in delay in diagnosis and treatment of all types of TB
Increase in access to services to hard to reach populations &
high risk & vulnerable groups
8/22/201315
Targets : 12th FYP

16. Over crowded living conditions Closeness of contacts
Absence of native resistance
Infectiousness of the source
Degree of sputum positivity
Pattern of coughing, lack of knowledge , nutrition
Resources : funds , trained manpower , infrastructure
Urbanization & migrations : slums
Unhygienic living conditions , poverty & indifferent attitude
towards health all these are high risk pockets 8/22/201316
Epidemiological factors

17. No financial constraints (best & 2nd largest)
multi factorial causation
Evidence from developed world
environmental condition & living standards
declined TB even before ATT
Social Stigma
Inhibits to come in early phase, even health workers behave
indifferently to them
72.4 % patients isolated with their utensils in their home
8/22/201317

18. Challenge peripheral area : lack of proper referral system
a chest symptomatic attends a health care provider, he is not
properly referred to DMC
Treatment facility to be accepted & utilized by community
Availability of all resources essential : drugs , needle syringe
,forms , chemical
8/22/201318
Organizational factors

19. Trained manpower still a big hindrance
General services still do not accept RNTCP strategies
In-service training must before merging it
Compulsory imposing of DOTS : resistance among doctors of
different discipline
8/22/201319
Organizational factors

20. RNTCP plans as NGO but implements as a government
department
Lack of coordination (intra & inter dept..)
DTO government post based on seniority
DTO : priority to clinical functions & failing to do justice with PH
8/22/201320
Organizational factors : District

21. Laboratory Supervisors STLs supervise the LTs but many times
they had far less experience than the technicians
Since they work on contractual basis ,ego problems may make
the technicians hostile
MO-TC , supervise STLs may not have necessary expertise
8/22/201321
Organizational factors : District

22. Computer literacy is still poor & networking not provided at all
levels
STDCs serve as hospitals instead of public health institutions
support training, monitoring, and supervision
State TB Officers don’t take action on DTO
STS ,treatment supervisor (1 lakh) population, has to observe
work by the health staff , no accountability
8/22/201322
State level

23. Patients reporting to big hospital not referred to DOTS center
due to fear of losing them
Social stigma of high SEC patients to visit DOTS
DOTS center restarts the investigation all again (don’t rely )
Often these centers are unattended so patients lose faith
8/22/201323
State level

24. Inconvenient (time / distance)
Observation may not be acceptable
Worse still : no accessible observer
Has to bear with cumulative side effects
No new drug in last 35 years
Universal coverage with DOTS not desirable
8/22/201324
DOTS : patients problem

25. 1% - 2% need non-DOTS regimen (intolerance, toxicity ,liver
disease, immcomp. & migration)
More common in reg. with alcoholism or drug abuse
DOTS should allow other reg. or provision to accommodate
Most pt. not recover of chest symptom sense of dissatisfaction
The drug combination & dosages changing over years creating
confusion among Physicians
8/22/201325
DOTS : patients problem

26. A study found that 60 % of dosages prescribed don’t correspond
to std. guidelines
Patients reluctant to visit DOTS center & take med for whole
month so the monthly doses are not supervised
Study by Bhatt 1998 showed SCC + HE = DOTS , but no
comparative study done
8/22/201326
DOTS : patients problem

27. RNTCP based on critical evaluation of NTC
Adopted a victim blaming approach ,
Rather than improving the policy & prog.
Very low targets were set for coverage & cure (85%)
But only 50% -60 % attend Gov. facility
Short comings : policy
8/22/201327

28.  Targets achieved are not uniform , some areas need greater
effort as case detection is passive
(i) lack of participation of other health care providers like CGHS,
Railways, Corporate sector, private practitioners
(ii) lack of community participation
Short comings : policy
8/22/201328

29. 40 % - 50 % of active pulmonary TB (culture positive ) can not be
detected by microscopy ( Nagpaul 1968 )
Improve quality of sputum microscopy
Undetected smear negative pt will get Cat III or left untreated
if x ray are also neg, but will continue to infect community
Not providing : leads to loss of faith in Gov. services
RNTCP has quality assured laboratory network NRL,IRL, & DMC
Short comings : diagnostic
8/22/201329

30. During 2012, RNTCP finalized protocol & guidelines for
certification for second line Drug Susceptibility testing (DST)
Some recent advantages in case detection
African giant pouched rats trained to detect pul. TB
 Alt tool to enhance case detection in resource limited
setting
 Fast , cheap & low skill
 Lab 40 sample in a day , HeroRAT same in 7 min
 With 86 % sensitivity ,89 % specificity ( overall 87 % vs 37 % )
Short comings : diagnostic
8/22/201330

31. Sputum microscopy instead of X-ray avoids over diagnosis and
identifies infectious cases
Sputum test still not taken seriously
Depends on skill & commitment of technician
IQA & EQA cannot guarantee quality of monitoring
SSM – high tech job needs training & re-training
8/22/201331

32. Initial drug resistance : effects success
Most of pt. receiving ATT outside are potential for DR
37.3 % TB pt. develop resistance to rifampcin
Cat II pt. put on 5 drugs without C & DS
DST should be included as one of the diagnostic criteria in
tertiary center rather than changing all center to DOTS
Short comings : resistance
8/22/201332

33. In case of CAT I failure , one more drug added but at least 3
should be added after sensitivity testing
2nd line drugs to be added for MDR-TB
Majority of these are poor & left (DOTS-PLUS not yet 100%)
Freely available in market , frequently used by PP
All these increase MDR-TB
Short comings : resistance
8/22/201333

34. Community Participation & Role of NGO
CP essential to achieve targets
Best prog. : makes people realize the imp of health
Does the community thinks same way as health expert ?
Felt need has to be generated
NGOs should be acknowledged & supervised
PP should be trained on differential diagnosis as silicosis ,
asbestosis
Short comings : integration
8/22/201334

35. No National IEC program , needed to change the attitude
Effective for illiterate population with strong political
leadership , as seen in case of polio prog.
WHO Report 2005 : political commitment not uniform
Political leaders needed at all stage to mobilize the resources
With corruption this is hard to be found
IEC , BCC ,training
8/22/201335

36. RNTCP training modules updated with latest policy changes
Videos training modules for training DEO in Nikshay
Relapse more common in smokers
Focus on Anti smoking campaign & counseling of smoker Tb
patient
IEC , BCC ,training
8/22/201336

37. Recording & Reporting :
3 forms : SSE / C&S / Transfer
2 cards : id & treatment
2 registers : Lab & TB
4 copies of quarterly report TU has to submit (S/C/NTI/Rec.)
New patient , sputum conversion , Rx outcome
Data analyzed at Dist. to get age, sex , CAT distribution of
cases , done by technical experts
In reality little or no role of CDMO & DM in general & in
supervision & monitoring
Short comings : reporting
8/22/201337

38. Need huge funding
Improved diagnostic tests
New vaccine in early phases of clinical trials
New drugs : Shorten Rx for drug-susceptible disease
Refine Rx in special populations (with HIV, children & elderly)
Short comings : research
8/22/201338

39. whole blood (finger prick) HIV screening test to all DMCs and
Provider Initiated HIV Testing and Counseling (PITC)
among presumptive TB cases in all “high” HIV prevalent settings
Isoniazid prophylaxis therapy (IPT) has also been accepted for
prevention of TB among PLHIV
Future
8/22/201339

40. To screen all TB patients for DM in the 100 districts where
NPCDCS implemented
Universal Access, school awareness programme
RNTCP field personnel to generate awareness among students
and teachers of all school and colleges in all the States/UT's
> 3.5 lakh schools visited, 4.5 lakh teachers, 9 lakh students
covered
Future
8/22/201340

41. Extensive training, supervision and monitoring needed at all
levels
Ensuring treatment adherence and timely follow-up, and
uninterrupted supply of second line drugs
Unsupervised and uncontrolled private sector
Almost 100% of second line drugs were sold and used outside of
RNTCP
Conclusion
8/22/201341

42. Risk of failure of treatment and development of drug resistance
This large unregulated private sector, conflict of interest, and
easy availability of anti-TB drugs are important hindrances to a
successful programme
Guidelines to all healthcare providers (IMA ,MCI ,DCGI) to draft
Need urgent attention : infection control practices in Hospitals
National guidelines on Airborne Infection control in context of
TB
Conclusion
8/22/201342

43. 1. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/
factsheets/fs104/en/index.html
2. http://whoindia.org/en/Section3/Section123.htm
3. Lambregts-van Wezenbeek CSB, Veen J. Control of
drug-resistant tuberculosis. Tubercle and Lung
Disease 1995: 76; 455-458.
4. DOTS PLUS guidelines, Central TB
Division, Directorate General of Health Services.
GOI,2010
References

44. Development & dissemination of different schemes for the
involvement of private practitioners, NGO’s etc.
Conduct sensitization & training Programmes for medical
personnel in other sectors including corporate sector
Awareness generation activities for health providers in the
community
Recommendations
8/22/201344

45. Change mindset of doctors & patients
Prog. Does not emphasize on active health education and
counseling of pt. in treatment & follow up
Convince them of RNTCP
Supervise & monitor the programme activities , address
shortcomings so quality services provided
Recommendations
8/22/201345

46. Thanks a lot for your
cooperation
8/22/201346