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No drug-resistant TB case in India: Expert team
There are no cases of total drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB)
reported in the country and the cases reported by a Mumbai
hospital fall in the category of extensively drug-resistant TB,
according to a report submitted to the health ministry Friday.
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New Delhi: Tuberculosis accounts for nearly half million deaths every year in
the South-East Asian region even as the number of people suffering
from the it has come down by 40 percent, the World Health
Organisation (WHO) noted Thursday.
The WHO called for greater partnerships with all sections of
society to eliminate this disease in the region, which has five of
the world's 22 TB high-burden countries. The region includes
nations like Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and
Indonesia among others.
"Partnerships, education and empowerment of the people as part of
primary health care, are key to eliminating TB. Partnerships, with
NGOs, public and private hospitals, and others, since the 1990s,
contributed to about 25 percent increase in case notification and
more than 90 percent of the treatment success rate," said Samlee
Plianbangchang, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia.
"However, tuberculosis is a disease of poverty and unless we reach
the poorest of the poor, and focus on prevention and education, we
cannot eliminate the disease," Plianbangchang added.
According to the WHO annual report on tuberculosis titled
Tuberculosis Control in the South-East Asia Region 2012, the
region registered an estimated 5 million prevalent and about 3.5
million incident TB cases in 2010.
"Though the death rates in the region have declined due to
successful implementation of the directly observed treatment,
short course (DOTS), the disease still claims about half a million
lives a year in the region," the report said.
In India, according to the health ministry's TB Control
statistics, the disease kills two people every three minutes, and
accounts for over 3 million (3 lakh) deaths every year.
While India has been relying on DOTS treatment to fight the
disease, the country has also faced the recent controversy of drug
resistance after a team of doctors from Mumbai's Hinduja hospital
recently found cases of totally-drug resistant (TDR) TB resistant
to all drugs used to treat the disease.
The health ministry, after its report by experts, stated the cases
to be falling within the category of Extensively Drug Resistant TB
(XDR TB). The ministry shrugged off the term 'TDR' saying it is
not recognised by the WHO.
While XDR-TB cases are resistant to any of the three second-line
drugs, the multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases do not respond
to at least two of the most potent first-line anti-TB drugs.
The airborne disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium
tuberculosis that affects the lungs. Symptoms include severe cough
which lasts for three weeks or longer, producing bloody or
discoloured sputum, night sweats, fever, fatigue and weakness,
pain in the chest, loss of appetite, and pain in breathing or
coughing.
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