The study revealed a 12 per cent increase in the incidence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in India between 2000 and 2012.
A study based on a retrospective analysis of patient data at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi has revealed a 12 per cent increase in the incidence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in India between 2000 and 2012. Nearly 15,000 patients were subject to mycobacterial culture during the study.
The researchers have called the increase "alarming" and demanded urgent modification in policies. These findings, they say, should ring alarm bells for India, which according to WHO has the highest burden of TB in the world. One out of every five TB patients worldwide is Indian.
Dr Chand Wattal, Chairman of the Department of clinical microbiology and immunology told NDTV that multi-drug resistant tuberculosis went up from 4.7% in 2000 to 19.8% in 2012. This implies that while in 2000, one of every 20 TB patients in India had this strain of TB, by 2012 one of every five suffered from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
Dr Wattal adds while the policies are in place, rigorous implementation is needed. Active household contact investigation acts as a powerful tool to detect and treat TB at an early stage because it helps break the transmission cycle, he says. But, many patients don't return for a follow up due to the stigma associated with the disease.
About 2.8 Lakh people die of TB in India annually. More than half of the estimated 300,000 cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis reported worldwide were in India, China and Russia in 2014. However, experts say, India's response to TB remains far from satisfactory. The Revised National TB Programme had asked for a budget of Rs 1,358 crore but only received Rs 710 crore in the current fiscal.