Initiatives in India

India continues to face a serious situation, with the annual number of new cases accounting for about a quarter of the world's total. The Fujifilm Group is touring the vast country of India to conduct tuberculosis (TB) screening for residents in several regions.

• Population：1,407.56 billion
• Area：3,287,469km²
• Capital：New Delhi

• * Quoted from "Basic Data on India," Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. (as of March 2023)

The number of TB cases in India accounts for 26% of the total number of cases worldwide, making TB control a major challenge.

• Annual number of affected people：approximately 2.59 billion
• Number of affected people per 100,000 population：188

• * Quoted from “Tuberculosis profile: India” by the World Health Organization (WHO) (as of March 2023)

In many rural areas, the situation has been slow to improve due to a lack of understanding of the importance of early diagnosis and the lack of diagnostic facilities.

Based on the Indian government's plan to eliminate TB by 2025, our local subsidiary, FUJIFILM India Private Limited, , has been conducting TB screenings in various parts of India. In collaboration with state governments, medical institutions, The UNION (International Union for Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Prevention) and Stop TB Partnership, we have been enabling TB screenings using Fujifilm’s compact and portable X-ray systems throughout India since 2021.

In the first phase conducted in 2021, a medical examination vehicle equipped with an X-ray room inside the vehicle visited 27 cities including Delhi and Kolkata. X-ray examinations were performed on approximately 12,000 people in areas that had not previously had access to TB screening. Diagnostic support software developed using AI technology was introduced to assist physicians in their diagnosis when evaluating the X-ray images. For those who were diagnosed with suspected tuberculosis, sputum was collected on the spot and tested at a local medical institution. As a result, 125 people tested positive through the first phase and were treated at medical institutions.

The second phase of the program, which kicked off in September 2022, aims to raise awareness of TB screening among more than five million people, of whom approximately 30,000 will be screened with X-rays. Three vehicles equipped with portable X-ray machines are currently touring Gujarat, Kerala, and Assam, areas where access to medical care is unavailable or difficult, to conduct TB screening. For example, in Assam, a state famous for its Assam tea, Fujifilm’s portable X-ray systems were used to screen tea plantation workers.