Mumbai's curse: Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis has emerged as the number one killer in Mumbai among a host of ailments over the past year (2012-13), according to the ‘cause of death’ report accessed under right to information (RTI) Act from the city’s municipal corporation.

Of 85,802 Mumbaikars who died last year, up to 6,921 persons (8.1%) succumbed to tuberculosis. Following closely were non-communicable diseases like blood pressure (4.6%) and diabetes (2.9%).

While cases of malaria have seen a dip in 2012–13 after reaching a peak in 2010–11, a white paper on Mumbai’s health released by Praja Foundation, a city-based non-profit organisation, indicates that the number of malaria cases has reduced. Praja accessed the ‘cause of death’ reports from the municipal corporation through the Right To Information Act.

However, there is little reason for complacency with tuberculosis, dengue and cholera having raised their ugly head and wreaking havoc on the health of Mumbaikars. Even as malaria is not much of a worry for the city, dengue is posing a deadly problem.

In the year 2011-12, 30,675 cases of tuberculosis had been detected in Mumbai. This number rose to 36,417 cases last year (2012-13).

Similarly, over the last year, the number of dengue cases has gone up by over four times as compared to figures of the previous year. In 2011-12, the city saw 1,879 cases of dengue being reported in dispensaries and hospitals run by the municipality and state, this figure rose to 4,867 in 2012-13. That’s more than a two-fold rise in the number of dengue cases on two consecutive years.

Cholera deaths in the city too have become a bone of contention between the non-profit organisation which accessed the municipal corporation’s death reports and the health department.

From 2012 till March this year, nine persons in Mumbai died of cholera. However municipal health officials maintained that no cholera deaths occurred in civic-run hospitals last year.

Praja Foundation’s, founding trustee Nitai Mehta said, “The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation relies only on figures that it receives in its surveillance reports and not on figures from death certificates that it issues.”

A survey of 24, 694 citizens was conducted which revealed that 70% of Mumbaikars visit private and charitable dispensaries for treatment of diseases.
“It is appalling that the civic body has not devised any mechanism to gather data from private hospitals when a majority of the population throngs the doors of private hospitals. In such a case, the study of public health in the city will be skewed,” said Mehta.