Drug scarcity hits TB patients
Srinivas who has TB had developed a resistance to the first line of treatment over time and can be saved only if he is administered Bedaquiline-a new TB drug.
Hyderabad: Srinivas who has TB had developed a resistance to the first line of treatment over time and can be saved only if he is administered Bedaquiline-a new TB drug. But currently there is no hospital in Telangana which administers the drug. It is the first drug that is registered in more than 60 years and has proved to be effective globally.
What makes it more difficult is that the drug is not for sale in private and has to be given under the Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP). In Telangana, there are 3,500 drug resistant TB (DR-TB) patients who are helpless.
Presently just six places in the country are administering Bedaquiline at the National Institute of TB and Respiratory Diseases and Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis in New Delhi, KEM Hospital in Mumbai, BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad, Thoracic Medicine Hospital, Chennai and Guwahati Medical College, Assam.
While the daily regimen roll out has started in few States, there is no effort to kick-start the programme in Telangana. For instance, several important positions such as Drug Resistant TB Coordinators, Private Sector Coordinators, Microbiologists, Epidemiologists and several other posts at the field level got sanctioned two years back but are still vacant.
India accounts for 23 per cent of global TB cases and deaths and every year around 45,000 new TB cases are identified in the State. Dr Chakrapani, WHO TB consultant for Telangana says, “Out of the new cases, 4 per cent become drug resistant due to not conforming to the prescribed medicine, not taking the dosage and other reasons.”
At any given point of time, there are 75,000 TB patients (old and new) in the State. When asked why Bedaquiline is not administered to patients, Dr Ch Surya Prakash, additional director, (Planning & Evaluation) & State TB officer said, “Data monitoring, identifying patients and setting up the system at the districts is underway. The programme would be rolled out in the next six months.”
It may be noted that last week the Supreme Court issued an order when a patient in Delhi went to court after a hospital denied the drug. In its order, the apex court said that it was mandatory for all the States to roll out the programme within nine months.
Rs 24 crore is earmarked for TB programme in Telangana under the National Health Mission. India accounts for 23 per cent of global TB cases and deaths. An estimated 2.2 million people suffer from TB in India with over 70,000 multi-drug resistant TB cases out of which 2 per cent fail to get treatment.
By T P Venu
