ArticlePublic health action2025
Can high private cough syrup sales act as a proxy for missed TB notifications in TB surveillance?
Article in Public health action, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mentorship for research on TB in India: a course on Public Health Implementation Strengthening and Operational Research (MPHISOR).Public health action · 2026Article
- Digital tools not enough; quality control-linked incentives are needed for tuberculosis active case finding.Public health action · 2026Article
- Cough syrup buyers get referred but not tested: private pharmacy-based tuberculosis surveillance pilot in Jaipur, India.Public health action · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRajasthan in India, is a high TB burden state with a high prevalence to notification ratio. This gap calls for alternative strategies to find the non-notified people with TB. Because cough is the most prominent symptom of TB and cough syrups are one of the highest over the counter drugs in India, its sale might be used as a proxy for missed TB cases.
methodsThis was an ecological study to assess the correlation between cough syrup sales and missed TB notifications in the private sector. We calculated the missed TB notification rate as the difference between the estimated people on TB treatment and TB notification in the private sector from January 2021 to March 2023, across all districts of Rajasthan (n = 33). We analysed district level mean quarterly cough syrup sales and TB notification rates/100,000 population.
resultsWe found positive correlation between cough syrup sales and TB notification [overall (r = 0.43), private (r = 0.63) and missed private TB notification (r = 0.39)]. Based on this analysis, missed TB notification rates were 7x more than the reported notifications in the private sector.
conclusionWe recommend a private sector-based TB surveillance system with TB screening for people who approach pharmacies for cough syrup.
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