Chennai: The World Health Organisation’s fight against Tuberculosis (TB) saw some hope with the launch of Bedaquiline - a drug used to treat Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDR TB) and Total Drug Resistant TB (TDR TB) cases - which was launched in March this year.
“Though the drug falls under Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP), as of now, it is used in only six centres in the country in order to check its feasibility,” said Sunil Khaparde, Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
WHO had estimated that up to half a million new cases of MDR TB occur worldwide, each year. “The current treatment regimens for MDR-TB present many challenges: the treatment lasts 20 months or so, requiring daily administration of drugs that are more toxic, less effective, and far more expensive than those used to treat drug-susceptible TB. Usually, less than half of all patients who start MDR-TB therapy globally are treated successfully,” said S. Mohanty, a Pulmonologist.
“Therefore, for the first time in over 40 years, the new TB drug with a novel mechanism of action was granted accelerated approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration,” he added.
“The drug has, until now been used for three cases in the state - in Dindigul, Namakkal and Tiruvallur districts. However, it caused hypotension in one case,” said Lakshmi Murali, State TB Officer. “Culture sensitivity is going on for 15 cases,” she added.
Despite there being considerable interest in the potential of this drug to treat MDR-TB, information on the same remains limited. “The country is yet to see this drug being put to use and until then, we can only hope that this paves the way for India to move from the ‘control stage’ to the ‘elimination stage’ of the disease” added Mohanty.
