A Review Abstract India has nearly one-third of the world's TB patients. Private for-profit providers of health care abound in India. Indian TB patients, like other people with chest symptoms, usually seek professional help first from a private for-profit provider. Diagnosis of TB is often delayed and several providers are consulted before diagnosis. Patients purchase anti-TB drugs over the counter, often without a current prescription.
Most patients fail to complete treatment, stopping treatment once they feel better.
Progress and outcomes are not monitored. Indian TB patients together spend more than 150 million US dollars each year on private TB care, which typically buys them palliation instead of cure. TB patients steadily gravitate towards government-run services as they get progressively poorer and more ill. If the behaviour and practices of private for-profit providers could be influenced to ensure more frequent cure among their patients, much of the death and suffering inflicted by TB could be averted. Interventions need to be devised and tested, to improve the outcomes of treatment among the many TB patients in India who first choose private providers of treatment.