The organizational challenges in the management of the revised national tuberculosis control program of India: an overview

Abstract

The developing world is facing a serious problem of tuberculosis (TB) since ages. The condition is really profound in resource-constrained countries. The situation in some of the high TB burden countries is so grave that there are huge numbers of TB patients and deaths due to TB. TB control in most of the countries is done by the national TB control programs. In India, this is popularly known as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP). The RNTCP comes under the umbrella of the national health mission. The main components of RNTCP are directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) and DOTS-Plus. The effective and adequate implementation of the RNTCP is the most effective solution to control the ever growing cases of TB. The present situation, as detailed in the WHO global annual TB report, with ever-rising cases of various categories of TB is really scary and demands prompt attention. In this paper, the authors highlight the important issues related to the RNTCP in India. The main motto of writing this paper was to address the challenges associated with the organizational structure of the national TB control program of India and to suggest solutions for the same. The authors believe that these challenges could pose a serious threat to the efforts aimed at TB elimination from India. Besides, this paper will serve as a tool to modify and/or to formulate new guidelines for the betterment of the program. Also, the challenges detailed here are usually common in the other high TB burden countries of the world and this will help the program managers worldwide.