Discovery of a deadly form of TB in a Mumbai hospital  underscores mismanagement In December last, when doctors at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai raised the alarm over a deadly form of tuberculosis, the Union health ministry was quick to refute the claim. In its press release on January 17, the ministry said the term “totally drug resistant TB” is “misleading”; it is neither recognised by the national programme for TB control...

-PTI A team of doctors deputed by the union ministry of health and family welfare has come up with a blueprint to curb TB cases in Mumbai, a top municipal official in Mumbai said. "The pilot project will be adopted across the country after it succeeds in Mumbai," additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar said. The project, to be carried out under Revised National tuberculosis Control Programme, would be integrated with the basic public health...

Health ministry deputes team to Mumbai; says neither WHO nor tuberculosis control programme recognise TDR-TB The Union ministry of health has denied the presence of totally drug resistant tuberculosis (TDR-TB) reported in Mumbai. Researchers at the Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai documented the presence of this strain of TB in India for the first time in the December 21, 2011 edition of the journal, Clinical Infectious Diseases. Patients suffering from it are...

India will soon ban blood tests to detect tuberculosis (TB) that are widely available across the country.  An expert group set up by the Drug Controller General of India has found that blood tests are mostly inaccurate for TB detection. It has recommended to the Union health ministry to immediately ban them.  A ministry official said "The DCGI had set up an eight-member committee to look at whether a proposal by the...

-The Telegraph The Union health ministry plans to initiate a process to make tuberculosis a notifiable disease, compelling all private doctors nationwide to keep local health authorities informed about their TB patients. A senior health official said the notification would mean private practitioners would have to inform health authorities about patients who show up with symptoms for the first time and patients treated earlier who may have developed drug-resistant TB. “This is not...