Date:24/03/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/24/stories/2007032420671100.htm

National

India could be tuberculosis drug-resistant hotspot: report

Special Correspondent

20% of patients here are at risk of developing Multi-Drug-Resistant-TB

NEW DELHI: Drug-resistant tuberculosis poses a serious threat globally with more countries, including India, likely to report such cases due to "careless" treatment practices, Global TB Control Report Card, 2007 has warned. Larger TB resistance problems exist worldwide, the TB Report Card brought out by two global health advocacy groups has said. This is based on new global data published this week by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

In Russia, 41 per cent of the patients presenting for treatment are at risk of developing Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR)-TB. In South Africa and India, it is 20 per cent. Countries with over 10 per cent risk include Brazil, Nigeria, Pakistan, Myanmar, Uganda, Thailand and the Philippines.

Indication

Bobby John, president of the Global Health Advocates, said the re-treatment default and failure numbers were an indication that some patients already had a drug resistant strain of the disease, or indicate that they might soon develop it.

When programmes permitted defaults, treatment failures and re-treatment failures, they were sending an open invitation for those patients to develop and spread drug-resistant variants to others.