Doctors at Hinduja Hospital will first stabilise her before administering the 'miracle-TB drug' on Monday according to her father, who came to Mumbai on Friday with the rest of the family.
In a relief to the teenager from Patna suffering from drug-resistant TB, the required dose of bedaquiline has been provided to Hinduja Hospital under the monitoring of civic-run KEM hospital, following instructions from Delhi High Court.
Doctors at Hinduja Hospital will first stabilise her before administering the 'miracle-TB drug' on Monday according to her father, who came to Mumbai on Friday with the rest of the family.
"She is not doing fine and her weight has dropped. She has been admitted to Hinduja Hospital. I hope my daughter recovers soon," said her father, who is a Class III government employee in Patna. The girl, who has been suffering from drug resistant TB for a couple of years, has dropped down to around 25 kg and is in very frail health. The drug is her last hope for survival according to doctors treating her.
Bedaquiline, the last known drug for TB patients resistant to other drugs, is available only through a limited-access government programme. 100 patients each will be treated at six approved centres, including Mumbai and Delhi.
The dose given to the teenager is from this programme that is being run at the Sewri TB hospital.
Dr Zarir Udwadia, chest physician at Hinduja Hospital, who is treating the girl is required to replace the medicine provided by the government once he received supplies from Europe by the drug's manufacturer Janssen. Since this could take up to 60 days, the government has for now provided the teenager with the drug.
"She has been provided bedaquiline. She has been admitted and I am not going to discuss anything about her," Dr Udwadia said. The case could open doors for many other TB patients who are waiting for access to the life-saving drug.
Health experts across the world are watching India's bedaquiline programme closely and want the government to scale it up. In his budget speech earlier this week Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reiterated that the government aimed to eliminate TB by 2025, a target difficult to achieve with the country's large number of drug resistant patients.
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