-The Telegraph New Delhi: India could prevent on average 18,000 people from developing multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis every year over the next decade if the health ministry accelerates proposed changes in TB diagnosis and treatment policies, public health experts have said. A study by the health ministry's TB division has estimated that India could avert 180,000 cases of MDR-TB between 2015 and 2025 if most patients who seek government treatment are tested for MDR-TB...
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Antibiotic resistance a big threat to TB treatment in India -Jyotsna Singh
-Down to Earth TB programme grappling with lack of funds; weak enforcement of standards another problem A joint initiative of the government, independent experts and civil society has found that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is emerging as a major health problem in India. Moreover, delay in treatment of MD-RTB is the main reason behind increasing antibiotic resistance, especially towards drug Rifampicin. The findings have been established by Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) 2015 of...
More »MDGs: A neglected agenda for inclusiveness
The India Country Report 2015 on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) comes at a time when the Union Budget 2015-16 allegedly cut expenditure on several social sector schemes and programmes. This year's MDG country report says that India will fail to achieve two important targets pertaining to reducing hunger and maternal mortality by 2015, among others. Released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the report says that India is...
More »57% of TB patients given wrong drugs -Malathy Iyer
-The Times of India MUMBAI: Here's why drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) breeds freely in Mumbai: Patients don't get appropriate medication. A new study collating information from eight hospitals and treatment centres across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai found patients were given drugs that they were resistant to. The study, published in PLOS ONE medical journal recently, looked at 340 patients suffering from multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB between 2005 and 2013. "We found only 29.4% of...
More »Pvt sector deserts war on TB, funding down 33% since 2011 -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India Even as tuberculosis (TB) continues to haunt the world, a new study has revealed that funding for research and development of new drugs to fight the disease is floundering. Private sector funding has declined by more than a third since 2011 as pharma companies are closing their TB research programmes. Pfizer shut down its TB drug discovery programme in 2012, AstraZeneca in 2013 and Novartis in 2014. Meanwhile,...
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