India: Acute shortage of TB medicines in UP

LUCKNOW: Shortage of essential tuberculosis medicines in government-run centres in state has made it extremely difficult for patients. Sources in health department said there was absolutely no stock of medicines for first line treatment of TB and that less than 1% of medicines needed for treating multi-drug resistant TB (MDRTB) are available. In fact, the 1,000 patients of MDRTB cannot be provided with all the seven medicines they need. One drug or the other would be missing in their kit. Incidentally, patients suffering from extremely drug resistant TB (XDR) are left to fend for themselves as the Health department has not initiated the process to procure medicines they need. One week's medicine bought from the market costs around Rs 2,000, a price the poor can ill afford.