Goa sees rise in drug resistant tuberculosis -ToI

Goa sees rise in drug resistant tuberculosis Gauree Malkarnekar, TNN | Apr 10, 2013, 04.08 AM IST PANAJI: Drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) is increasingly raising its ugly head across the country. And it is not a good scenario for states like Goa, which have to wait for nearly a week for test results for multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB to arrive from a hospital in Mumbai. But within two months' time, Goa will no longer lack the specialized DOTS plus laboratory. The facility for carrying out sputum sample culture and drug sensitivity test will be available at the DOTS plus laboratory to be set up within the microbiology department of the Goa Medical College at Bambolim. "Presently, samples for MDR testing are sent to JJ Hospital in Mumbai once a week, every Tuesday from Panaji and reports arrive within seven days. Once the intermediate reference laboratory for sputum culture and DST is accredited by May or June this year, the testing will be done in Goa itself," Dr Vandana Dhume, health officer at the state TB control office said. The facility is expected to considerably reduce the seven-day wait for reports. Nationally, the overuse of antibiotics has been attributed to the rise in drug resistant forms of TB. When TB patients fail to take the basic DOTS treatment regularly or stop taking the medication midway through the recommended period, they run the risk of developing multi drug resistant TB. Since Goa has begun the DOTS plus treatment for MDR patients in November 2011, 58 cases have been reported in the state so far. "Previously, TB was known as a poor man's disease, but now we see infected persons in all age groups, socio-economic classes and among males as well as females. TB is contracted when the person's immune system is weakened due to HIV, malnutrition, diabetes or by taking strong drugs for chemotherapy among other reasons," Dhume said. Annually, an average of 2,000 TB cases are reported in Goa and 85% of these patients are successfully cured of the illness. While basic DOTS treatment for category one or new patients and category two or previously treated patients involves administering four to five types of antibiotics, MDR TB requires prescription of six to seven types of drugs. MDR TB is known as a man made phenomenon by doctors as it is caused by irregular intake of prescribed drugs, the default rate being 4-5% in basic DOTS patients in Goa. "If MDR TB treatment is not taken in the correct dose and for a duration of two years under the strict directions of doctors, then it can lead to extremely drug resistant (EDR) and later total drug-resistant (TDR) tuberculosis. But so far such cases have not come to our notice in Goa," Dhume said. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Goa-sees-rise-in-drug-resistant-tuberculosis/articleshow/19468791.cms