TDR-TB: Bangalore has 2 confirmed cases, 8 under scanner

Following the shocking discovery of four cases of Totally Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (TDR-TB) at Hinduja hospital three days ago, two confirmed cases bearing the  deadly new strain of TB have been detected at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD) in Bangalore.

But the scarier scenario is this: One among them, a 56-year-old man (the hospital has not disclosed his name) has gone absconding, raising the threat perception many levels higher, considering that he could infect others with the deadly strain.

Shockingly, RGICD has not intimated the state health department. Dr Shashidhar Buggi, director, RGICD, said, “If they ask us, we will let them know. We are a national institute; if the state government asks us for the reports, we will definitely give it to them.”

This spells another concern. While one of the confirmed TDR-TB patients has gone missing, the state health department officials remain in the dark.

Both the TDR-TB cases in Bangalore were confirmed after RGICD sent their sputum (phlegm) samples to Chennai's Intermediate Reference Laboratory where the samples tested positive for the deadly TDR-TB strain.

The other patient suffering from the TDR-TB is a 29-year-old woman (name undisclosed).

“These patients were being treated for over two-and-a-half years. After eight months, when they were not responding to medication, we sent their sputum samples to the Intermediate Reference Lab in Chennai. It was then found that they had both become extremely resistant to the drug - a condition named Extreme Drug Resistance (XDR). When this condition continued for more than a year, it was confirmed that they had Multi Drug Resistance (MDR),” said Dr Buggi. “We have now sent samples of eight suspected TDR-TB patients to Chennai and are awaiting the results.”

When DNA tried contacting senior health officials, none of them were available.