Mumbai finds 1,407 patients with drug-resistant TB
Six months after a special plan to combat tuberculosis was introduced in the city, there is an estimate of just how widespread the deadly drug-resistant variety of the disease is in the community. Of 6,561 people screened for the disease across the city, 1,407 tested positive, said BMC officials on Tuesday.
"The numbers are higher this year because of better diagnostic
and treatment facilities introduced in the city," said
additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar. In 2011,
only 354 people were tested, of whom 181 emerged positive. Ever
since Hinduja Hospital, Mahim, made public in January 2012 its
experience with 12 patients with extremely extensively
drug-resistant TB, the spotlight has been on Mumbai's TB
epidemic. The Centre has given funds and special status to help
check the spread of the disease.
A central team, along with experts from Centers of Disease
Control (US) and UNAIDS, will begin a visit to the city on
Wednesday to look at the progress made.
The BMC, which has been partnering the Revised National
Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), has in the interim got a
TB control officer with 24 deputies in each ward. "We have
increased treatment units in the city from 27 to 59. The Sewree
TB Hospital will get extra beds and an improved laboratory,"
said a city health official.
The BMC now plans to hold door-to-door surveillances every
quarter. The next survey will begin on September 1. "If we
cannot cover every ward, we will at least cover high-risk
areas," said another official. The BMC also plans to enlist the
help of counsellors in the TB control programme to ensure that
people do not drop out of treatment; dropout has been traced as
one of the reasons for the emergence of the drug-resistant
strain.
Mhaiskar said, "We have found drug-resistant patients who were
previously not part of the healthcare system. This is because we
increased diagnosis facilities." The city got a high-tech
GeneXpert, which detects drug-resistant strains in two hours.
The capacity of J J Hospital's laboratory to test has increased
from 15 to 60 a day. Another factor that helped the city is
door-to-door surveillance for TB patients in all 24 wards. "We
found 458 new patients of tuberculosis, of whom 452 have already
been put under treatment," said Mhaiskar.
The Times of India
