Kolkata: On the recent occasion of World Tuberculosis Day, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) announced that it has been able to significantly reduce the number of tuberculosis cases in the city while it will soon begin use of a new treatment regimen which will reduce the medicine course duration to six months from 20 months.
The deputy mayor and Member-Mayor-In-Council, Health, Atin Ghosh also announced that the state government is already administering the BCG vaccine in certain districts and such will soon be made functional in the city.
Ghosh highlighted the success of the civic body in identifying TB patients in the slum population while being able to reduce the number of drug-resistant TB cases. Departmental officials told the media that soon the course of treatment in drug resistant cases will come down to six months from 20 months given the advent of new medicines. Sources said, last year, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare approved introduction of the BPaLM regimen — a novel treatment for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) under its National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) as a highly effective and shorter treatment option.
This regimen includes a new anti-TB drug namely Pretomanid in combination with Bedaquiline & Linezolid. Pretomanid has earlier been approved and licensed for use in India by Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).
This regimen has been proved to be safe, more effective and a quicker treatment option than the previous MDR-TB treatment procedure. While traditional MDR-TB treatments can last up to 20 months with severe side effects.
A Millennium Post article published on February 24 reported that out of a total of 26289 CBNAAT tests done, 3287 drug sensitive (DS) cases and 402 drug resistant (DR) cases were diagnosed. Out of 19458 True NAAT tests done, 2109 DS cases and 118 DR cases were detected. Presently, there are 11 CBNAAT labs and 15 True NAAT labs for testing.