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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Spectre of drug shortage over TB treatment -Rupali Mukherjee

Spectre of drug shortage over TB treatment -Rupali Mukherjee

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published Published on Jun 18, 2013   modified Modified on Jun 18, 2013
-The Times of India


MUMBAI: The treatment of lakhs of tuberculosis (TB) patients, especially children, across the country has been jeopardized over the past few weeks as India battles a severe shortage of key TB drugs. The stock-outs are more to do with two categories: paediatric and drug-resistant TB or DR-TB, industry experts say.

Medical experts say that unless the government intervenes immediately, such acute shortage of drugs could prove disastrous for patients.

Dr Homa Mansoor, the TB medical referent for MSF India - the international medical humanitarian organization- said: "In our project in Nagaland, I've seen a 12-year-old girl on treatment arrive with her father after a long journey to get her medicine. The medicines were out of stock, but luckily we had six days' drugs available from a patient who had died. Otherwise, we're having to resort to breaking adult pills to give to children, which is really dangerous as it could over- or under-dose them."

Other patients have been forced to purchase medicines from private pharmacies, but have received lower-dosage drugs, which could lead to resistance.

"In this instance, it's a stock-out that can cost people's lives and the government must act urgently to fix the problems," said Leena Menghaney, India manager of MSF. With clinics in Nagaland and Maharashtra, MSF has provided TB treatment for 25 years.

Under the national TB treatment programme, the Centre is responsible for buying drugs and distributing them to states, which provide treatment. The stock-out is a result of the never-ending issues that plague drug procurement, sources said. The routine delay in tendering and the resultant drug stock-outs are some of the reasons why India has one of the world's highest rates of DR-TB.

The country has one of the highest prevalence of TB, with one person dying of the disease every two minutes. Many patients simply go undiagnosed or are not treated in time. Besides, India also has the world's second highest multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) rates, with nearly 66,000 new cases every year. Yet only 5% of the people diagnosed with the disease get the treatment they need to stay alive.

While DR-TB refers to those strains of TB that show resistance to one or more first-line drugs, MDR-TB is resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-TB drugs.

Though first-line TB drugs are not expensive and are available, treatment cost for DR-TB is huge at nearly $4,000 or Rs 3.87 lakh per patient per year. The problems that plague DR-TB medicines are limited number of quality suppliers, affordability and stock-outs.


The Times of India, 18 June, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Spectre-of-drug-shortage-over-TB-treatment/articleshow/20640118.cms


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