Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program: Evolution, Achievements, and Challenges

India initiated National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTCP) in 1962. After reviewing NTCP and realizing its shortcomings, the Government of India evolved and adopted a revised strategy - the directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) - under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) with the goal of reducing TB burden and the twin objective of 70% case detection and 85% cure rates. RNTCP was launched in 1993, in a phased manner to be evolved through pilot phase (1993-1996), DOTS intensification phase (1997-2006), Stop TB strategy (2007-2011), and currently the Universal Access or National Strategic Plan (2012-2017). RNTCP has been progressing successfully toward its goal and achieving its objectives since 2007. This addresses the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and target to be achieved by 2015 and the Stop TB Partnership targets to be achieved by 2015 and by 2050. By 2011, the RNTCP has treated more than 14.2 million TB patients and saved 2.6 million additional lives using the DOTS strategy. The spread of human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), emergence of multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and the unregulated and underutilized vast private sector using anti-TB regimes different from those under RNTCP pose additional challenges in the control of tuberculosis. For this review, information has been collected from official websites of World Health Organisation (WHO) Geneva, WHO South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) New Delhi, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Government of India and published literature, through search engines like Google, Google Scholar and Pub Med using MeSH Terms "DOTS" and "Tuberculosis Control.