Part one of the seventh episode of the Centre for Policy Research’s ongoing series focussed on how the coronavirus crisis has hindered access to tuberculosis medication and halted new diagnoses of the disease.
The guest speakers – Dr Madhukar Pai, Professor and Director of McGill Global Health Programs and International TB Centre; Nandita Venkatesan, a journalist, TB survivor and TB disability advocate; and Dr Sarthak Rastogi, consultant pulmonologist at the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai – highlighted that even without Covid-19, India has the highest TB burden in the world with over 1,000 deaths every day.
The episode is co-hosted by Yamini Aiyar, President and Chief Executive of Centre for Policy Research, and Dr Jishnu Das, Professor at Georgetown University and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Delhi-based think tank. Part two looks at what measures the government must take during the lockdown and after it is lifted to help patients who are already on treatment and ensure that new patients continue to get diagnosed and treated.
This is part two of episode seven in a series by the Centre for Policy Research on the unfolding coronavirus pandemic in India. You can follow the Centre’s work on Covid-19 on Twitter or visit www.cprindia.org. You can listen to all the episodes in the Coronavirus Conversation series here.