High Risk of Tuberculosis among Tibetans living in India

The Tibetans in exile living in India have one of the highest rates of Tuberculosis in the world according to The Union health ministry. It is estimated that 100,000 Tibetans live in India, and their population in Dharamsala is about 25,000.

The prevalence of TB is 3 times higher in the Tibetan population than the national average. According to the RNTCP officials, India’s national TB prevalence is about 168 cases per 1 lakh people, whereas exiled Tibetans living in India have a TB rate of nearly 500 per 1 lakh population.
The head of India’s Revised National TB Control Program (Dr Ashok Kumar) met the Dalai Lama on Wednesday at Dharamsala (the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile) regarding the alarming trend of the disease among the Tibetans. The meeting was held to seek the Dalai Lama’s guidance and intervention on how the Tibetan population could be better integrated into the RNTCP, and ensure that they take proper drugs in right regimens.

RNTCP officials said, “His Holiness has promised to help the ministry to fight TB among Tibetans.”

According to Dr Kunchok Dorjee (TB programme director, Delek Hospital, Dharamsala):-

• Low-nutritional status of monks who fled Tibet in the 1960s made them prone to TB.

• Those who were infected spread it to others through migration.

• Child monks have to live in close quarters and share dormitories inside the monasteries. Therefore, even if one of them is infected with the disease, it spreads to others very easily.

The Health Ministry is most worried about multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) — which is very difficult to treat. Dr Dorjee added, “At present, we don’t really know the prevalence of MDR TB among Tibetans. Around 20 DOTS centers in and around Dharamsala are treating patients with normal TB.” An RNTCP official also added, “We have told the Tibetan population that we will supply them drugs to treat MDR TB provided they follow the national TB control protocols.”


Treating an usual TB patient costs around Rs 600 over a six-eight months period, whereas an  MDR-TB patient’s treatment is exponentially expensive at around Rs 1.5 lakh over 24-28 months.
The World Health Organization has supplied the exiled government with two Genexperts — a machine that diagnoses MDR TB in less than two hours.

 According to  a ministry official, “Time is of prime importance as far as diagnosing TB is concerned. A single MDR TB patient can spread the disease to 15 people every year, if left untreated”.

   -Kounteya Sinha 

-The Times of India