A looming threat of tuberculosis in children
The RNTCP guidelines on contact screening are heeded mostly in the breach. About 5,500 of over 76,000 children tested in nine Indian cities have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, 9% of…
Category: MDR-TB
IISc researchers’ quest to make a common antibiotic more effective against TB
Bacteria develop resistance against a drug only when they are exposed to it or when the drug is misused. But now, a team of researchers from India has found whether…
Breaking the drug-resistant TB transmission cycle important
Nearly two months after the Health Ministry set a highly ambitious target of working towards elimination of tuberculosis by 2025, a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases indicates that India’s TB…
Without a magic wand, India cannot eliminate TB by 2025
At the end of 50 years of tuberculosis control activities, the disease remains a major health challenge in India. As per new estimates, the number of new cases every year…
Nandita: Deaf but not out
When she woke up after a short afternoon nap on November 22, 2013, two days after her 24th birthday, Nandita Venkatesan could see her mother and brother talking to her…
About 0.5 million TB patients approaching RNTCP centres are not treated
In 2013, India had about 2.7 million people with TB, which is 23 per cent of the global burden of TB. India also accounted for 27 per cent (760,000) of…
Did WHO’s TB care advice cause more MDR-TB cases?
Between 1993 and 2002, the World Health Organisation violated sound medical care by urging low- and middle-income countries to follow less expensive, largely untested and ineffective treatment protocols to treat…
A step closer to a safer, more efficacious TB vaccine
A potent vaccine against tuberculosis is getting readied at the Pune-based Serum Institute of India Limited. The institute started a ‘Phase 2b’ clinical trial in neonates in South Africa late…
