The government will deploy special JOSH teams in districts with the highest tuberculosis burden, in a new push to find missing cases and cut transmission.

The teams will go door to door in vulnerable communities, screening people with symptoms and linking confirmed patients to free treatment. The focus is on districts where case detection lags behind estimates, meaning many patients remain undiagnosed.

India carries the world’s largest TB burden, accounting for over a quarter of global cases. The government has set an ambitious target of eliminating TB ahead of the global 2030 deadline, but progress has been uneven.

Health officials say the JOSH model borrows from successful campaigns against polio and COVID-19, where dedicated field teams drove last-mile coverage. The teams will also track treatment completion, since interrupted therapy breeds drug-resistant TB.

Public health experts welcome the move but stress that funding and staffing must be sustained. They also call for better nutrition support for patients, noting that undernourishment is one of the biggest risk factors for TB in India.