New Delhi: First the good news. It will now be easier to ascertain multidrug resistant (MDR) TB cases in just two hours. Ahead of the World TB day, Union health minister J.P. Nadda will launch a state-of-the-art cartridge-based nucleic acid amplification test (CBNAAT) machines for faster detection of TB across India on Monday. Now, the bad news, in what could be a set back to the National TB programme, the Union health ministry, which was earlier aiming to introduce daily drug regimen for TB drugs, will not be able to do so due to an inadequate participation of pharma companies in its tender floated to procure drugs. As of now, under the TB programme, the drugs are dispensed every alternate day.
However, to make it easier for the patients, the health ministry had planned to introduce daily regimen, which will now get delayed. Officials say that the new regimen, if introduced, would have led to better management of TB cases and consequently helped in lowering the relapse cases.
Sources said that the delay has occurred since the government in their criteria for procurement of drugs had specified a “long shelf life” of three years, due to which only one firm could participate. It was then decided to float the tender again so as to have adequate participation. The government has also decided to tone down the shelf life to 24 months. The new regimen is now expected to launch by the end of this year. The government proposes to introduce the daily regimen in about 100 districts of states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Bihar. This will later be implemented across the country.
The intiaitve gains significance, as the findings from various studies have indicated that the existing (alternate day) regimen leads to increasing instances of drug resistance and relapse. “Once the daily regimen starts, such cases will come down drastically. The patients will be followed up on daily basis and there will be no chance of treatment getting delayed,” said an official. Barring India, 127 of 132 countries that started with intermittent treatment regimen have already switched to daily treatment.
The government is, however, looking forward to introducing 500 odd CBNAAT expert machines which experts feel will cover about 700 TB burdened districts.
The minister will also introduce third line Antiretroviral drugs for HIV patients on the same day.
