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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Varanasi/Drug-resistant_TB_growing_in_country_including_East_UP/articleshow/4012849.cms

'Drug-resistant TB growing in country, including East UP'

21 Jan 2009, 1920 hrs IST, TNN

VARANASI: 'There is a growing need to evolve new research methods to counter the menace of multi drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) cases in the country,' said Dr VM Katoch, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and secretary, department of health research, Government of India.

  

 (Dr. V M Katoch)

Addressing the senior doctors and medical students during his presentation on 'TB research in India: Challenges and Opportunities' at the Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University

(IMS-BHU) on Wednesday, he said that as many as three to eight per cent of TB cases were responding poorly to the drugs and one to three per cent cases had already developed resistance against the infectious disease in the country including the East UP region.

Referring to the new approach for drug resistance TB, he said that new methods were being evolved that included profiling by genetic groups and advent of recombinant gene technology to trace new proteins and new antigens to prepare effective drugs. "We are working on genomic approach (that includes development of DNA kit for identification of over expressive genes) and proteomic approach for development of recombinant drug for the disease," he added.

Rector, BHU, BD Singh, director, IMS, Gajendra Singh, dean, faculty of science SC Lakhotia and other senior faculty members were also present on the occasion.

Later talking to reporters, Katoch said, 'We need to establish more Intermediary Referral Laboratories (IRL) across the country to study drug susceptibility and drug resistance cases for tuberculosis. We already have as many as four National Referral Laboratories (NFL) that cover most parts of south India and some parts of north India, he said adding that additional 13 IFLs would be set up in different parts of the country that would cover the entire country by 2010.

Saying that there would be no change in the directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) that has achieved almost 95 per cent success rate (in fresh cases) and virtually covered every part of the country (two years ago), he added that the DOTS Plus programme was also in the pipeline that would focus on multi drug resistant (MDR) TB cases.

Sharing his experiences during his stint at National JALMA Institute for Leprosy and OMD, Agra that covers 35 districts of UP (more than 800 million population) besides states of Uttarakhand, Assam and Himachal Pradesh under DOTS programme, he said recent studies had suggested that congested colonies in urban areas were becoming more prone to emerging TB (MDR) cases. Referring to recent studies regarding prevalence area in Banda and Kanpur districts, he added that while three cases out of 1,000 urban populations witnessed MDR, rural areas witnessed one case out of the same population.

Speaking about new initiatives to combat TB (MDR) cases, he stressed the need for revised training and reactivation of studies in medical colleges in the country. "There is a proposal to establish modal units imparting new methods of teaching in remote places of the country to eradicate the disease," he said.

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