Nearly 60 per cent of tuberculosis medication dose strengths sold in India through prescriptions of private practitioners do not conform with standard TB treatment guidelines, a study has revealed. The findings corroborate suggestions made by some Indian doctors — several times over the past two decades — that a majority of private practitioners do not write correct prescriptions for treating TB. The government’s TB control programme provides free TB treatment to more...

Says it receives far more submissions than the space to publish British medical journal The Lancet has refused to publish India's rebuttal in connection with an article in which a drug-resistant superbug was named after New Delhi. The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), in the rebuttal, disagreed with the naming of the bacteria as New Delhi Metallo Beta-lactamase-1. However, Lancet Editor Richard Horton, while on a visit to India later, apologised...

International health journal Lancet has accused the Government of India of “suppressing truth” about the presence of a drug-resistant bacteria in the public water system here by “threatening” and “abusing” its own scientists. It also dubbed as “unfortunate” the government's denial of presence of such bacteria. Mark Toleman, one of the co-authors of the study that claimed to have detected the bacteria in the capital's waters, said it was named ‘New Delhi-beta-lactamase'...

Anti-microbial resistance, theme of this year's World Health Day Drug resistance renders medicines ineffective Celebrating World Health Day 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for intensification of the global commitment to safeguard antibiotics for future generations. With growing resistance by microbes to antibiotics threatening the continued effectiveness of many medicines, WHO has made anti-microbial resistance the theme of this year's World Health Day. It has urged governments and stakeholders to implement policies...

Tuberculosis continues to be a major health problem in India. But the unveiling of a new test to diagnose TB and Drug resistance on World Tuberculosis Day (March 24) brings some hope into a bleak scenario. Last Thursday, on World Tuberculosis Day, for the first time since the 1880s there was probably some justifiable cause for jubilation. After centuries of grappling with sputum smear microscopy, developed way back in the 1880s,...