The World Health Organisation (WHO), in its latest report on tuberculosis (TB) released this week, has said that India needs to speed up its capacity for diagnosis and treatment of patients, especially those suffering from multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis.

NEW DELHI: Mumbai's Sewri TB Hospital, Asia's largest of its kind, is facing a stock-out in drug-resistant (DR) tuberculosis drugs due to a delay in placing new orders, a situation that doctors say puts patients at high risk and might even prompt international airlines to issue advisories to foreign travellers against visiting the country's commercial capital.

Anshu Prakash is worried about what he calls "mischievous propaganda" by "some people" who he thinks are misleading reporters. The joint secretary at the ministry of health and family welfare starts off by flatly denying that the joint monitoring mission (JMM) set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the government of India (GoI) discussed the impending danger of a TB drugs stock-out in August 2012.