Currently, the limitations of the current system include the fact that "they do not capture all cases in most countries. Cases may be missed by & #8230;systems because people…are diagnosed by public and private providers that do not report cases to local or national authorities" (WHO, 2012, p. 29)
Therefore, the key to assisting the surveillance system in India is to encourage more widespread participation from non-NTPs. One of the key ways in which this surveillance system could truly become national is to subsidize organizations that do report their cases to the national system. By providing incentives to these providers (WHO, 2012, p. 33), the system could be used more and more accurately reflect the rate of incidence. The other special feature that should be added to the national surveillance system in India is that is should reflect an equal prioritization of facilities in which diagnosis occurs -- which does not help in gaining widespread adoption. The country must go beyond simply prioritizing medical colleges (WHO, 2012, p. 33) for this system to be truly nationwide.
The major challenges that public health officials face regarding a disease surveillance system for tuberculosis in India is not so much establishing one, but rather increasing its efficacy. Currently the disease surveillance system employed is predominantly used by NBTs, and not by external entities. Thus, it is still possible that a number of cases of tuberculosis are not reported, and that the attempts to eradicate this disease are not meeting their full potential as such. I believe that the most efficient way to improve this particular system is to issue penalties...
At present, India is offering incentives for organizations to adhere to its system. I would augment this approach by also implementing penalties for any sort of health organization, whether public or private that does not conform to this standard. I believe that representatives from the World Health Organization or from the aforementioned national entities prevalent in India regarding tuberculosis should conduct inspections to ensure that agencies are successfully reporting all cases. Those who do not should be issued some sort of punitive measures, whether punitive or otherwise, that serves to galvanize them into action so that the disease surveillance system truly becomes representative of the national interest in this phenomenon.
Thus, it is apparent that India would greatly benefit from a full-fledged implementation of a disease surveillance system for tuberculosis, especially considering the prevalence of this malady within its borders and in the surrounding areas as well.
References
No author. (2012). "New Heroes Ep4 01 Inderjit Khurana Train Platform Schools India." Youtube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIwIJ0GkBoI
World Health Organization. (2012). "Global tuberculosis report 2012." World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/gtbr12_main.pdf
World Health Organization. (2006). "Communicable disease surveillance and response systems: guide to monitoring and evaluating." World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/surveillance/WHO_CDS_EPR_LYO_2006_2.pdf
