Eight responding to treatment, two go missing; state calls for proper testing.
Mumbai continues to paint a gory picture of extremely resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) TB with Bai Jerbai (BJ) Wadia hospital alone having identified at least 11 children infected with XDR-TB after testing 500 children infected with TB in the last three years.
Amid the current controversy over TDR-TB, a term which is being rejected by state and government health agencies, Dr Shah told DNA, “We have diagnosed 11 patients with ‘partial XDR-TB’ which shows that the bacteria is mutating fast due to poor and partial treatment.”
Dr Ira Shah and her colleague Dr S Chikalkar performed a study from July 2007 to August 2010, testing 500 children infected with TB. Some of them were found to have contracted the disease due to exposure to Drug Resistant (DR) - TB bacteria at home.
According to Dr Shah, partial XDR-TB patients show no improvement with the MDR drug line. But eight of her patients have responded after prolonged treatment for 18 months, including daily injections for six months. One child is yet to respond to treatment and two never returned for follow-ups.
Hinduja hospital’s TB expert, Dr Zarir Udwadia, who had opened the lid on the TB controversy a week ago and has been facing the ire of government agencies ever since, refused to comment.
Dr PY Gaikwad, joint director, health (TB) at the state health department, said, “There is no term like partial XDR-TB. To say XDR, patient needs to have resistance to fluoroquinoline and aminoglycoside both. However, we need to know the details of such patients and also whether the testing lab is accredited. Otherwise, one cannot confirm that the patient has XDR-TB.” He further added that doctors must try to get details of the two missing children with XDR-TB so that the state and BMC can provide help.
Meanwhile, following reports of poor infrastructure of the city’s only TB hospital in Sewri, a decision was made to upgrade the laboratory for advanced TB testing in a high level meeting of BMC officials on Friday.
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