TB THE NEW DANGERS

THE RISE IN THE NUMBER OF CASES AND DEATHS DUE TO DRUG-RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS IS PROVING TO BE AN IMPEDIMENT TO INDIA'S AMBITION TO END THE DISEASE BY 2025. WHAT MORE DO WE NEED TO DO?

- SONALI ACHARJEE

DEEPTI CHAVAN 40, Patient Advocate, Mumbai

A TERRIFYING DISEASE

Deepti underwent treatment for Multi-Drug-Resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) for six long years. The drugs she was prescribed had extreme side-effects: “One drug, cycloserine, makes you suicidal, irritable....you just lose your mind. The family feels that the patient is doing this because he/ she is frustrated, but it’s the medicine which makes them behave thus.” Another drug, clofazimine, turned her skin dark, and the drastic change in her appearance scared her further. “The side effects of MDR treatment can be gruelling, and only a few patients are properly informed about this. Now, I am trying to provide to others the counselling that I missed out on,” she says.

IT was only natural that India took the lead in hosting the One World TB Summit in Varanasi recently, because the country still has the highest burden of tuberculosis in the world. Not only do we account for almost a quarter of the total 10 million people afflicted with TB annually, we also lose more than 400,000 people a year to the disease, more than a third of the world's annual toll of 1.4 million. At the venue in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India's commitment to eliminate TB by 2025, five years ahead of the UN target. He also launched a TB-Mukt Panchayat Initiative to expand the ambit of India's tuberculosis elimination effort down to the last village.