Srinagar, Sept 02: Jammu and Kashmir recorded 12,554 cases of tuberculosis (TB) between January and October 2025, already surpassing the total number of cases reported during the entire year of 2024.
According to data presented by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 12,200 TB cases between January and December 2024. The 2025 figure, however, covers only the first ten months of the year. By October, the number of reported cases was already 354 higher than the previous year’s total.
The figures come at a time when Parliament is in session and questions around public health are bringing new government data into the public domain.
The increase in reported cases in Jammu and Kashmir stands in contrast to the national trend. According to the Union Health Ministry, India’s TB incidence declined by 21 percent between 2015 and 2024. The number of cases fell from 237 per one lakh population in 2015 to 187 per one lakh population in 2024.
In Jammu and Kashmir, however, reported TB cases have risen when the first ten months of 2025 are compared with the full-year figure for 2024.
The government says the increase should not necessarily be interpreted as a rise in the actual spread of the disease. It attributes the higher number of reported cases, in part, to improvements in screening and diagnosis under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan.
Chest X-rays and other screening facilities have increasingly been taken to the grassroots level, including rural and remote areas. The expansion of testing means people who may previously have had TB without knowing it are more likely to be diagnosed and brought into treatment.
Early detection remains central to the government’s strategy for controlling the disease. Screening is being strengthened through both public and private healthcare providers, making testing more accessible to people closer to their homes.
But the latest parliamentary data raises broader questions about the region’s disease burden. Changes have also been reported in the numbers and detection rates of diseases such as leprosy and malaria in Jammu and Kashmir, pointing to the need for closer examination of regional health trends.
Tuberculosis has historically been one of the world’s most devastating infectious diseases. Before effective treatment became available, TB claimed the lives of millions and affected people across social and economic backgrounds.
“The fight against TB has nevertheless seen major breakthroughs. The development of streptomycin in the 1940s marked a turning point in the treatment of tuberculosis and helped demonstrate that the disease, once considered almost inevitably fatal, could be treated,” says microbiologist Dr Zahoor A Parray
Decades later, TB remains a major public-health challenge. For Jammu and Kashmir, the latest figures offer a complex picture: while India has recorded a decline in TB incidence, the number of reported cases in the region during the first ten months of 2025 has already exceeded the total recorded in 2024.
