Tuberculosis and Air Pollution: A Spatial Analysis of Their Interrelationship

Tulika Tripathi, Central University of Gujarat
Vijay Kumar, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Alok Raj, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

There is a constant decline in the air quality of India. Tuberculosis being an infectious airborne respiratory disease, will have a strong correlation with the quality of air. Air quality not only affects the spread of disease but will also worsen the survival chances of tuberculosis patients. In India every day almost 30 people die of tuberculosis, more than what we saw during the first wave of COVID-19. Yet the research on linkages of tuberculosis with air pollution remains far less than COVID-19 and air pollution. Therefore, the current research tries to estimate the spatial distribution and variation between air pollution and tuberculosis across the states of India. The current work has used advanced remote sensing technology, utilising one-kilometre resolution Sentential-5 data, environmental variables, NDVI and metrological data. Data on incidence of TB and death due to TB is taken from TB report 2022. Our results shows positive correlation of self- reported TB with various particles of air-pollution, most importantly O3 NO2 NDVI, LST & HCHO. We further analysed the impact of air-pollution on TB related death, assuming that the air-pollution will worsen the condition of a TB patient and obstruct the effect of treatment. Results shows a similar pattern.

Keywords: Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Population, Environment, and Climate Change, Health and Morbidity, Spatial Demography

See paper.