India: Medicine for drug-resistant TB patients to benefit 800 in Maharashtra

Sunil Khaparde, deputy director general (TB Control), Union ministry of health and family welfare said, "The drug will be first made available to XDR-TB patients and pre-XDR-TB patients for free in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Guwahati, the largest contributor to such cases. We will decide on expanding access after evaluating the treatment success rate and other parameters at these five centres."

The drug will be made available to people with the support of United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The US government is the largest bilateral donor in the global TB effort, supporting TB programmes in more than 50 countries with the highest TB burdens. "We are going to procure bedaquiline through the donations given by the USAID," Khaparde added.

A Union health ministry official said depending upon the procurement, the new drug will also be offered to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients in the country in three years. "Initially, the drug will be used to treat patients with XDR-TB and pre-XDR-TB. We will carry out cardiac evaluations and some blood investigations to find out the clinical fitness of the patients to see if they can tolerate the new drug," the official added.

"Maharashra has recorded over 800 XDR-TB patients. Of them 600 XDR-TB patients are from Mumbai alone. The availability of the new drug is expected to benefit these patients," said state tuberculosis officer Sanjeev Kamble. Experts said if TB drugs can be regulated and their misuse controlled, further spread of drug-resistant TB can be curtailed.

Source: The Times of India