Tuberculosis: Health min plans to roll out daily drug therapy

The Union Health Ministry plans to start daily drug therapy for tuberculosis patients in 100 select districts after switching from the existing thrice-a- week regimen.
On the eve of World Tuberculosis Day, Director General of Health Services (DGHS), Jagdish Prasad, said that the pilot project is expected to start in three-to-four months and those districts which are vulnerable, remote and backward will be chosen for the same.
The move comes after health experts rued the delay by the government in implementing the daily fixed-dose treatment for tuberculosis patients despite making policy changes in this regard.
"We had undertaken a pilot project in which it was found that many of the patients go to the private sector and do not come to the government's Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP). One is an intermittent regimen and the other is a continuous daily regimen.

"We want to bring those patients towards this programme. TB patients are mostly poor and their nutrition is not right. To put an end to this, we plan to start a pilot project in 100 districts where the daily regimen will be followed," Prasad told reporters here.
He said it was found that the patients who go to the private sector, too, do not take medicines regularly. Due to this, they either leave medicine and ultimately die or develop multi-drug resistance.

"It will take three to four months. All persons will be given medicines free of cost. Remote areas and backward districts will be given priority though the districts have not been decided as yet," he added.

Prasad also said that bringing awareness about the disease is very essential, which is why the Health Ministry is trying to spread the message through the media that if a person's cough continues for two weeks, a doctor should be consulted.
He said that under the RNTCP programme, 20 million TB patients have been treated since 1990. In 2014, the government treated 15 lakh TB patients while around 7-7.15 lakh patients were treated in the private sector.
Prasad said that while there are 23 lakh TB patients in the country, 2.3 lakh deaths take place every year at present due to the disease.