After introducing drug Bedaquiline for treating multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), the Government is mulling guidelines on how to shorten the treatment period from current 2 years to 9 months to bring more patients under the drug treatment regimen.
India is facing a daunting task of curbing TB, which affects over 2.2 million people in the country annually. It is a curable disease, yet 2 people die every 5 minutes in the country. The incidence is lowering at only 2 per cent per year, not enough to achieve the targets set by it.
Dr Jagdish Prasad, Director General of Health Services, Health Ministry said, "We recently introduced drug Bedaquiline for treating drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). Now, our next step is to introduce guidelines on how treatment for MDR-TB can be reduced from 2 years to 9 months."
He was speaking at a meeting organised by the partners of Call to Action for a TB-Free India to sensitise civil society organisations (CSOs), urging them to join fight against TB on Friday.
Under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), besides introducing drug Bedaquiline, the Ministry has recently introduced rapid diagnostic CBNAAT machines to improve the accuracy of diagnosis and also initiated the daily treatment regime for TB patients.
Dr RS Gupta, Deputy Director General-CST, National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) under the Health Ministry said, "Persons with HIV are four times more likely to contract TB because of their already weakened immunity. The mortality rate in HIV TB patients is also higher than in patients with TB alone. Screening HIV patients for TB is not yet a policy, but we need to test HIV patients exhibiting TB symptoms to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment.
He noted that as missed diagnosis remains a serious issue, CSOs should come forward to work closely towards combating both HIV and TB.
Dr Sunil Khaparde from the Central TB Division stressed that a TB Free India is not possible without support of CSOs working on issues of reproductive and maternal health, child and adolescent health, diabetes and HIV-AIDS, while Dr Jamie Tonsing from The Union noted that communities can help create greater awareness of TB control efforts and mobilise communities for early diagnosis.