Eighteen months after the Indian government launched the “TB Free India” campaign, nine policy changes under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) are yet to be implemented. The delay has raised concerns among the international public health community which believes that drug resistant TB (DR-TB) — currently spreading at an alarming rate in India — will not remain confined with the borders if the Indian government does not show urgency.

The main gaps are regarding the government’s failure to roll-out Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs) for tuberculosis(TB) patients living with HIV; the failure to provide A child-friendly TB regimen and the glacially slow pace of scaling up availability of a new drug Bedaquiline, which can treat multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).........................Read more

Source: The Hindu