Abstract
Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant TB in India faces stiff contemporary challenges as evinced from four recent publications highlighting high treatment failure and death rates. The challenges and suggestions for their remediation have been tackled herein, through the themes of amplified drug resistance findings, the strategy to take drug resistant TB (DR – TB) treatment to peripheral health facilities; caring for the wider needs of DR – TB patients and understanding patient behavior. The strengthening of laboratory infrastructure and competencies is strongly recommended. Technology, both biomedical and epidemiological, is required to design empirical and locally relevant backbone drug regimens. Skills for ground level management of DR – TB, including adverse drug reactions (ADR), need to be rapidly developed and deployed. Programmatic management needs to focus on “care” as much as on “cure”.
Citation
Dholakia Y and Mistry N. Challenges and Opportunities for Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant TB in India. SM Trop Med J. 2018; 3(1): 1017.