India : After swine flu, Pune hit by drug-resistant tuberculosis

Article via Health India :

" After swine flu, Pune now has to deal with drug-resistant tuberculosis. 36 new cases of multiple-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) were reported in Pune district in the last 40 days. Professionals fear that MDR tuberculosis and its deadlier cousin – extensively-drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR) – may actually pose a bigger threat to the nation’s healthcare system than AIDS.

15 MDR patients are from areas in Pune city, 12 are from neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad and nine are from the district’s rural interiors. This has prompted the officials at the city TB Control Unit have now directed the private practitioners to report each and every case to the authorities concerned. It is imperative to have private-public coordination to thwart the MDR-TB menace. After the culture lab for diagnosis of MDR-TB became functional at the Aundh Chest Hospital on February 10, experts have begun demarcating the MDR cases from the regular TB patients. TB becomes resistant when the patient doesn’t get proper treatment or the right drugs aren’t given."