FEARS over incurable strains of tuberculosis in India have just been reinforced.
People diagnosed in January with “totally drug-resistant TB” (TDR TB) have been independently retested at the National Tuberculosis Institute in Bangalore. The tests confirm that the bacteria resist all first and second-line drugs used to treat TB – although the World Health Organization says that limitations in the lab tests mean the bacteria are not yet proven untreatable.
Paul Nunn, head of TB drug-resistance at the WHO, lauded stepped-up efforts by India’s health ministry to identify and treat cases of multidrug-resistant TB, from which the new strains arose. The ministry plans to quadruple its TB budget and re-open a 200-bed TB sanatorium in Mumbai (Thorax, DOI: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2012-201663).
Zarir Udwadia, the clinician at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai who identified the original 12 cases of TDR TB, says there have been two new cases. “Most worrying is one in a girl with no history of past TB and no contact with anyone who has multidrug-resistant TB.”
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Three of the first 12 patients have died, six are being treated and three have gone missing.
