Poor response to TB registration

The Central TB division has set guidelines on notification of TB cases and private practitioners were required to report cases to the nodal public health authority at least on a monthly basis. Nikshay,an information communication technology (ICT) application,has been developed by the government to specifically provide realtime surveillance on TB cases.

While 495 TB patients were registered in the private healthcare sector in Pune,Pimpri Chinchwad saw 54 TB patients being reported. This World TB Day (March 24) civic doctors from Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation have appealed private practitioners to report each TB case to initiate early treatment. In the PMC area 93 persons with multi drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have been detected last year while in PCMC 59 persons with MDR-TB are being treated. As many as 8,000 die of TB every year in the state and while there has been a rise in number of patients with MDR-TB,doctors have appealed for a larger role by the private healthcare sector.

Dr C Thakur,city TB control officer told Newsline that 3,872 TB patients have been registered last year. Seven persons died while 93 MDR-TB cases were detected and are being treated free of cost. There is one patient each who has extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) in Pune and Pimpri. In PCMC area,646 TB cases were detected last year and till date 19,202 TB patients have been treated,Dr Kishore Khilare,City TB control officer for PCMC said.

According to State TB officer Dr Sharad Sabnis,a total of 1.36 lakh new cases of TB were detected in 2012. Presently 5,189 patients with MDR-TB are being treated. The number of persons who died were 7,925 in 2009,7,829 in 2010,7,934 in 2011 and 7,597 in 2012.

TB is a leading cause of mortality in India,killing 2 persons every three minutes,nearly a 1,000 people a day. Each year,we recognize World TB Day on March 24 with a variety of activities and this year the theme is ‘Stop TB in my lifetime’. We have urged more and more private practitioners to enroll in the programme and register TB patients online so treatment can be started early,” Sabnis said.

Strengthening TB control in major cities with intensified case finding efforts and strengthening surveillance with online monitoring of TB patients (Nikshay) has been taken up. Enhancing engagement of large unregulated private sector and strengthening implementation of recent initiative like TB notification,commercial serology-based diagnostic test ban,and strengthening infection-control practices at healthcare facilities and communities are part of the programme,Sabnis said.

XDR-TB surfaces in Pune,2 under treatment

While a form of incurable tuberculosis (TB) or totally drug-resistant TB has been recently reported to have been detected by doctors India raising further concern,for the first time,two patients have been detected with extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) in Pune and Pimpri. According to Dr N D Thakur,TB control officer,PMC,a 20-year-old girl detected with XDR-TB has been on treatment since February and Dr Kishore Khilare,PCMC TB control officer said a 20-year-old boy from Yamunanagar,Nigdi,has contracted the same infection. The boy’s brother had died of Multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and his mother too has MDR-TB. The two XDR-TB patients are on treatment. This is the first instance of XDR-TB being reported in Pune. (XDR-TB) cases have been reported in Mumbai.Doctors said any patient with a cough for more than two weeks should get sputum tested.Considerable efforts are needed to expand capacity for quality-assured drug susceptibility testing in the region to accurately estimate extent of drug-resistance. Given the widespread availability and use of second-line drugs,and as laboratory capacity to conduct second-line drug susceptibility tests increases,more XDR-TB cases are likely to be identified,health officials said.