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Friday, January 13, 2012

India : No city lab can certify TDR-TB

Via Times of India :

" There could be more than 12 cases of the new and deadlier form of tuberculosis, Totally Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis or TDR-TB, in the city. JJ Hospital officials and a private doctor said they are treating patients suffering from TDR-TB.

JJ Hospital dean Dr T P Lahane confirmed that they have identified two patients suffering from the new strain of TB and who have been under treatment since 2003.
"We have two cases of TDR-TB. They had stopped taking the primary course after a few months of being detected. They then developed resistant strain. This happened twice to each of these patients,'' JJ Hospital dean Dr T P Lahane said.

Meanwhile, Dr Yatin Dholakia of the Maharashtra State Anti-Tuberculosis Association said that he had found TDR-TB in a patient two years ago. "The girl improved for a few months but left the city when her aunt could no longer afford the treatment,"' he said.

A few months ago, he identified the new strain in another woman. "She has localized lesions in her lungs and could improve after surgery, but no doctor is as yet willing to operate on her," he said.

However, it is not clear if these cases are the same that were included in the study done by the Hinduja Hospital at Mahim, and published in an international medical journal last week.

Doctors in Bangalore, too, said that they have identified cases of TDR-TB.

Hinduja Hospital doctors, led by Dr Zarir Udwadia, , set off a debate in the medical circles with their research paper on the emergence of the deadly TB strain in the country."

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