Express report on Tuberculosis drug shortage: Delhi Health dept forms panel to look into supply gaps

This comes after The Indian Express on December 17 reported on the non-availability of TB medicine to a 16-year-old patient named Harshita Singh Chandel.

Harshita and her mother Jyoti Singh at their Jahangirpuri home. (Express/Farhan Sayeed Masoodi)

3 min readNew DelhiDec 20, 2024 06:53 PM IST First published on: Dec 18, 2024 at 05:50 AM IST

The Delhi government Tuesday formed a committee to look into gaps in the supply of tuberculosis medicines in the city. This comes after The Indian Express on December 17 reported on the non-availability of TB medicine to a 16-year-old patient named Harshita Singh Chandel; she filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court on the erratic supply from the district dispensary and the hospital. The court directed the state government to provide her with medication.

According to the order issued by the office of the Directorate General of Health Services, “The committee shall look into the factual situation and gaps in the supply of these medicines, reasons thereof, and action taken till now to fill the gaps. The committee shall also submit recommendations to ensure uninterrupted supply of medicines to TB patients in Delhi.”

According to sources in the Union Health Ministry, drug-resistant TB (DRTB) regimen drugs have been adequately available in all states and Union territories, including at the state drug store in Delhi. They added that adequate supplies of longer DRTB regimen drugs like Cap Cycloserine and Tab Linezolid are available for all patients currently on longer DRTB oral regimens in Delhi. The ministry is in touch with states and UTs to ensure last mile delivery of the medicines, the sources further said.

Harshita, who lives in Jahangirpuri with her parents and two sisters, has been unable to attend school since July after she was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The medication she needs is mostly out of stock at the government dispensary five minutes from her home. Her mother Jyoti Singh said in five months, she got the medicines — Linezolid and Cycloserine — from the dispensary only for a single month. On Monday, she managed to get tablets that would last five days.

Speaking to The Indian Express on Tuesday, Jyoti said she received calls from several officials who assured her that the issue would be resolved. “I also received a call from the dispensary on Tuesday to collect the medicines,” she added.

She said officials also assured her that Harshita would receive the monthly incentive of Rs 500 for TB patients. The family had claimed she hadn’t been receiving the amount.

An official from the state health department said the committee will also find out how many such patients are unable to avail of medicines.

Meanwhile, the Centre is running a 100-day campaign across 347 high-priority districts in 33 states and union territories to eliminate tuberculosis in India. This is being done to enhance detection in select high-burden districts with a mission to eliminate TB by 2025. In Delhi, the campaign is being run in all 11 districts.

Last month, the World Health Organisation highlighted two significant milestones in India’s fight against TB: an 18% dip in cases over the past 10 years, more than double the global rate; and a 24% reduction in deaths in the same period, higher than the global average of 23%.