MDR-TB cases up 55 times since 2010

Seventeen-year-old Netra (name changed) from Girgaon in South Mumbai looks like just another lanky teenager. Two years ago, she was afflicted with a stubborn strain of tuberculosis. Netra's ailment was picked up under a national TB programme run by the civic body.

Alarming rate of growth
Netra is one of the 6,701 patients diagnosed with multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis following screenings by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) since 2010 and the numbers are growing at an alarming rate.

From barely 47 cases four years ago, the figures were up by 55 times to 2,615 till 2013. Not many were as lucky as Netra to survive the scourge of MDR-TB. Nearly 17 per cent of the cases – 1,033 patients – have succumbed to the disease in past four years.

People affected by the these deadly bacteria do not respond to basic first-line TB drugs – Isoniazid and Rifampicin. "Patients are directly getting afflicted with multi-drug resistant bacteria, which is a more potent bug," said Dr Amita Athavale, head, chest medicine, BMC-run KEM Hospital.

The effect of medicine
"I could not stand on my own feet for up to two months, skipped my 10th board exams. I was administered injections daily for up to six months. The effects of medicines on my body was so harsh that it was very difficult for me to bear the pain," Netra said.

An underlying epidemic
The BMC woke up an underlying epidemic in the city after 12 cases of extensively drug resistant (XXDR-TB) cases were reported by PD Hinduja Hospital in January 2011. Another powerful strain that health officials have come across is the extremely drug resistant (XDR-TB), something that was unheard of up until four years ago. Since 2010, the BMC has put 288 people on XDR-TB treatment. Both XXDR and XDR patients are resistant to the second-line MDR-TB drugs.

2,000 cases every year
Public health experts said that more TB cases were being diagnosed due to installation of more diagnostic facilities in the city. "We have been persistently detecting close to 2,000 cases of MDR-TB every year since 2012," said Dr Minni Khetrapal, TB officer, BMC.

Scary figures
2010:  47
2011:  288
2012: 1,939
2013: 2,615
2014: (so far) 1,812