Fixed drug combinations for TB rolled out in Mumbai
MUMBAI: The BMC on Monday (February 6) rolled out fixed dose combinations for patients of drug-sensitive tuberculosis, which will not only reduce the pill burden but also increase their adherence to treatment. This also marks a significant shift in the Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) programme, where a patient used to be administered the medicines thrice a week under the supervision of a doctor.
Under the new norm, a patient will be handed over a month's
stock of
fixed drug combinations
(FDC), significantly bringing down the number of visits a
patient has to make to a DOTS centre every week. FDC drugs
contain the four main molecules of first-line TB
treatment— rifampicin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide and
ethambutol—in one pill, and have long been advocated by
the WHO as the ideal approach to treat tuberculosis.
"Henceforth, any new patient registering under the Revised
National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) will be treated
with FDCs," said
Dr Daksha Shah, Mumbai's TB
control officer. "It is a simple way to deliver the correct
number of drugs at the correct dosage as all the necessary drugs
are combined in a single tablet. By altering the number of pills
according to the patient's body weight, complete treatment is
delivered without the need for calculation of dose," she said,
adding that the existing patients will continue to be on the old
regimen of single-drug formulations in order to avoid confusion.
The BMC, along with the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, has
also launched a monitoring system, where patients have to place
a call after completing their day's dose. If they fail to call
for 2-3 consecutive days, the health workers will contact the
patient. Shah said the patients will have to take anything
between two to five pills everyday depending on the body weight.
Maharashtra is one of the five states where the FDCs have been rolled out.
Source:
The Times of India
