Incurable TB spreads in Ahmedabad, no cure in sight

The 24 cases of incurable tuberculosis reported from hospitals in Ahmedabad city in the last one year are harbingers of a health threat for which the medical fraternity and government officials are not prepared at all.

Sources said that some of these 24 patients of excessive drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis - the name by which incurable TB is officially known - had already died. As even the most powerful of anti-TB drugs had failed against this form of the disease, doctors and medical authorities have no idea how to deal with it.

“If preventive steps are not taken immediately by both patients and doctors, it might soon be too late,” said Dr NR Patel, chairman, Gujarat TB Association. He further said that the state government was gearing up to meet the threat and would formulate a policy this month on how to tackle the problem.

“The number of medical staff exclusively assigned to dealing with the disease may have to be increased and other steps would also need to be taken,” Patel said.

Most of the difficult cases of tuberculosis currently being treated at city’s hospitals are of the multi-drug resistant (MDR) variety. This tuberculosis does not respond to the most common medicines prescribed for the disease but it can be cured by more powerful drugs.

Tuberculosis of the XDR variety, however, does not respond to any of the known medicines. If something in not done to stop the spread of this deadly variety of the disease, more destructive strains of the TB bacteria will surface, the sources said.

Dr Patel said that a case of TB is classified as multi-drug resistant (MDR) when a patient does not respond to the two main drugs for treatment of the disease — isoniazid and rifampicin.

He further said that nearly 4% of TB patients are first-time victims of MDR tuberculosis while 17% are cases in which the disease had returned as the deadly MDR variety.