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HDI Home | TB News Archives
TB News from India
TB News from India : January- February 2008
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Health and Development Initiative-India, (
www.healthinitiative.org ), publishes 'TB News from India ' once every two months. The objective of newsletter is to highlight issues related to Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS control in India and enlist political, public, professional and administrative support for its cause. Health and Development Initiative-India is a not-for-profit organization and the news items have been quoted from various sources for fair use and in public interest.
Reproduction of the material published is welcome provided a reference is made to the original source of the news item and `TB News from India '.
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Editorial Note:
"I am stopping TB"The slogan for this year's World TB Day (WTBD) is `I am stopping TB'. This simple yet forceful slogan gives a clarion call to all of us to come forward and make a contribution to the onerous task of eliminating tuberculosis from this planet. A number of international and multilateral organizations have helped India achieve a nation wide coverage of DOTS services. Having reached all district and block headquarters of the country the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) is now making its presence felt. However what is lacking is a societal support to convert this programme into a people's movement. This year's WTBD slogan emphasizes an urgent need for everyone be it a TB patient who is receiving treatment or has been cured now to come forward and make his or her contribution towards tuberculosis control. It also includes health care providers, families and community, the school teachers who have to continue to work with zeal. The industrialists,traders and the bureaucrats who runs the administration are also assumed to play a role in helping RNTCP achieve its predetermined goals.
Let us join hands and announce with confidence "Yes, I am stopping TB now"
STOP TB Partnership announces World TB Day theme
A campaign aimed at challenging people all over the world to do their part to fight tuberculosis (TB) will be launched early in 2008 in the run-up to World TB Day. Plans for the campaign were announced by Stop TB Ambassador Anna Cataldi at the opening ceremony of the World Conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease at the Cape Town International Convention Center . World TB Day is held each year on 24 March.
"The slogan, I am stopping TB, says that everyone can take an active role in helping all people in need gain access to accurate TB diagnosis and effective treatment," Ms Cataldi said.
Patients can stop TB by becoming active participants in their own cure and taking all their anti-TB drugs as prescribed.
Health workers can stop TB by staying alert to the symptoms of the disease and providing prompt diagnosis and treatment.
Scientists can stop TB by engaging in needed research to develop new diagnostics, new drugs and new vaccines.
Teachers can stop TB by educating their students about this age-old scourge.
Communities can stop TB by sharing information to help prevent the disease and get treatment to those who need it.
"The challenge we are putting to people across the world is, 'What are you doing to stop TB? Please join us in the fight," said Dr Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership.
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A sure-footed campaign against tuberculosis in Tamil Nadu
By Ramya Kannan, The Hindu, Dec 21, 2007
CHENNAI: Ever since popular South Indian film mega star, Rajinikanth lent himself to the mid-80s ad campaign to eradicate polio to an astounding response, it has been clear in Tamil Nadu that star power can truly swing a cause.
Nearly two decades later when a younger star, Suriya, talks about joining the battle against Tuberculosis with Reach, he is still referring to Rajnikanth's sleight of hand that brought mothers, with children in tow, to pulse polio booths. "I still remember his work for pulse polio. It still evokes total recall."
For a star who is seen as frequently on television as he is on screen, thanks to the brand endorsements, Suriya is sure he can make a difference. "The brands I work for think I can make an impact in the market. I think I can make the same impact with a social cause."
But then, why TB? Suriya has a number of reasons. "Right from childhood, I've seen relatives being affected by it. My driver, who was very close to me, had TB. I still remember the tears in his eyes when my family did not want him to be around." The driver, incidentally, became part of the first campaign film for Reach, a Chennai-based non-governmental organisation creating awareness of TB and its treatment.
"For long I believed that TB would affect a certain group of people—rickshaw pullers, autorickshaw drivers and children. Then, a senior technician in a film I was working in went through this and was badly affected." Further, a friend's mother, young and high up on the corporate ladder, too, succumbed to TB.
"That's when it struck me that even people in `high society' can get TB, despite having different lifestyles."
For Suriya, meeting with Nalini Krishnan, director-projects, Reach, was the next stage. Bursting to do something, he found the right platform in Reach.
The first commercial, in which the driver's story was narrated, proved a success. "I got great feedback. It was supposed to be shown in Tamil Nadu only but they liked the film so much that they dubbed it into other languages, through the Central Government." What was even better was when kids, given information about TB, would say, "Suriya was saying this. I saw it on TV."
Dr. Krishnan agrees: "Television is great. We get a lot of calls immediately after such an ad is out."
The experience of its first ad has taught Reach that. While it also uses other means of communication, including pamphlets, there is no denying the huge impact television has. The stigma is still considerable, Dr. Krishnan adds. In fact, while shooting the latest shot, actors opted out when they heard it was an ad for TB.
Suriya, who conceptualized the ad, attests to this. "We wanted people from all walks of life to appear on the ad and had a tough time getting actors who were willing to appear in a TB ad. If this is the case in the cities, imagine how it might be in the villages."
The 30-second ad, inspired by Michael Jackson's "Black or White," is out on Vijay TV, which is allotting 8-10 slots every week. Some of them are on prime time, while the others play on the afternoon band. This is part of the corporate social responsibility activities of the channel, says R. Balachandran, Vijay TV's vice president (planning and marketing). Television will provide a wide reach, he believes.
This quite serves Suriya's purpose of reaching out to all: "Everybody counts. Everyone is involved. And everyone has to be aware."
http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/21/stories/2007122154030500.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drug-resistant TB infecting HIV+ in India
26 Dec 2007, Kounteya Sinha,Times News Network
NEW DELHI : Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), the untreatable form, has now started to infect India 's HIV patients. A study conducted by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi 's Clinical Microbiology Department has revealed shocking results — over 33% of those enrolled for the study, with both HIV and TB, were found to be suffering from XDR-TB. What's worse, all the patients with XDR-TB died within three months of diagnosis.
The study conducted by a three member team, headed by Dr Sarman Singh, head of the department of lab medicine, has been reported in the November issue of the international journal 'AIDS'.
Dr Singh told Times of India, "Fifty-four AIDS patients suspected of having HIV-tuberculosis co-infection were investigated in 2006 for the prevalence of XDR-TB. Out of them, TB was isolated from 24 (44.4%). Twelve (50%) of these had resistance to first-line drugs, whereas four (33.33%) were also resistant to second-line drugs." He added, "This is the largest study done in India with subjects being co-infected with HIV and TB. After isolating the TB culture, we tried for antibiotic sensitivity. This is the first time that XDR-TB has been found to infect HIV patients in India ."
According to Dr Singh, XDR-TB is a grave public health threat. "Officials of India 's TB Control Programme must stop denying that XDR-TB exists in India ," he said.
The study comes months after researchers from Hinduja National Hospital in Mumbai first found XDR-TB in 8% of all TB patients. The team had examined 3,904 lab samples and found 1,274 were positive for TB. Of these, 32% were multiple drug resistance (MDR-TB), of which 8% were XDR-TB cases.
Mortality rate of XDR-TB patients in the study was as high as 42%. XDR-TB cases are those MDR-TB sufferers who are resistant to all known TB medicines.
However, India 's National TB Control Programme has no data on the prevalence of XDR-TB. India , in fact, has just woken up to MDR-TB and doctors have started diagnosing and treating it in two labs in Gujarat and Maharashtra . After detecting MDR-TB, 50 people have been put on DOTS Plus treatment.
Dr Saumya Swaminathan from TRC Chennai told TOI, "We have received 1,200 TB samples from the lab in Gujarat of which 200 are MDR-TB. We are finding out how many of these are XDR to get an idea of its overall prevalence."
Dr Swaminathan, however, said the AIIMS and Hinduja figures could not be extrapolated. "Both are tertiary referral hospitals getting the worst patients. Also, the AIIMS sample size is too small. The study being done in TRC Chennai, results of which will be out in February, will give a better idea of XDR-TB's prevalence in the country."
Full Story at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Drug-resistant_TB_infecting_HIV_in_India/articleshow/2650882.cms --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fight against AIDS, TB gets $100m boost
22 Dec 2007, Kounteya Sinha, Times News Network
NEW DELHI : India 's fight against three deadly diseases — HIV, malaria and TB — has got a $153 million boost for use over the next three years.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, created by the G-8 group of industrialized nations in 2002, on Thursday signed a grant agreement with India 's department of economic affairs allocating over $100 million to fight AIDS and $53 million for malaria.
The move brings the total approved amount of global fund resources in India to $492 million since 2005. This new commitment has made India Asia's largest beneficiary of the charity.
"Total proposals approved for India is to the tune of $747 million to fight the three diseases and so far we have signed an agreement for $492 million, out of which $160 million has already been disbursed," fund executive director Michel Kazatchkine said.
"Since AIDS is a huge threat, we are utilising 80% of the resources for this disease. The $100 million grant will help India buy second line drugs from UNITAID or Clinton Foundation, purchase viral load machines, strengthen and scale up antiretroviral treatment programmes and support voluntary counselling and testing services," National AIDS Control Organisation DG K Sujatha Rao said.
Union health minister A Ramadoss said, "We have done a good job in containing TB and AIDS. Malaria is our concern now. It is endemic throughout India , specially in the north-east, West Bengal and Jharkhand. In the next three months, we will upscale our resources and efforts to fight malaria."
Kazatchkine and Rajat Gupta, the chair of the Global Fund board, are currently in India to visit global fund-supported programmes and meet with civil society and government officials.
Read the full story at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Fight_against_AIDS_TB_gets_100m_boost/articleshow/2642146.cms--------------------------------------------------------------------------
India should join global anti-TB plan: WB study
14 Dec, 2007, Press Trust of India
WASHINGTON : Countries like India and China , with high numbers of TB cases could gain more from the money they spend on diagnosis and treatment of the disease if they joined a global plan to sharply reduce the numbers of Tuberculosis-related deaths, a World Bank study has said.
The economic impact of TB deaths and the benefits of TB control among 22 high-burden countries are greatest in China and India, where the combination of growing incomes and a relatively high number of TB deaths translates into a significant economic effect, according to the 'The Economic Benefit of Global Investments in Tuberculosis Control'.
The study says that despite recent gains in fighting Tuberculosis, there were still 8.8 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths from the disease in 2005. Without treatment, two-thirds of smear-positive cases die within five to eight years, with most dying within 18 months of being infected.
Highly affected African countries could also gain up to nine times their investments in TB control with the study warning about the need to step-up TB control worldwide with the growing emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) in Southern Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia .
The study, commissioned by the WB on behalf of the Stop TB Partnership and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has attracted considerable interest from international health and development agencies, along with research and civil society groups, which want more aggressive TB control worldwide.
The disease is the leading infectious killer after HIV/AIDS.
Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/India_should_join_global_anti-TB_plan_WB_study/articleshow/2621452.cms--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mangalore: TB hospital on the brink of closure
Nov 24, 2007
MANGALORE: The District Tuberculosis sanatorium in Moodushedde near here stands defiantly as an exception to the rhetoric that Government hospitals are inefficient. The doctors and staff here regularly suffer from respiratory problems and run the risk of contracting the disease themselves, and yet continue to serve, undeterred.
But now the 100-bed hospital, which caters to seven districts of the State, is gasping for breath, and is likely to be shut down soon. Confirming that the facilities at the hospital were being considered for some other purposes, district surgeon J. Prabhudeva said the centre might be dismantled shortly.
For destitute people such as Steven (38), the hospital has been a refuge. Preferring anonymity, a doctor of the centre said that most of the patients came there during the advanced stage of the disease, and were from poor families. Many had been rendered homeless as they were disowned by their families.
The hospital provides them with food and shelter. The doctors said that every effort was being made to provide nutritious food to patients at scheduled times.
Dinesh (32), an inmate from Kundapur, said: "Every day we are given three eggs, bread, milk, lunch, and dinner." In addition to these in-patients, the hospital caters to dozens of out-patients, including those on periodical check-up.
There is an acute shortage of clerical and supervisory staff at the hospital. The pharmacy is managed by the nursing staff even as there is no X-ray technician in the hospital. The equipment is handled by a clerk.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the staff to keep the hospital running, a large part of it has become defunct. Of the 100 beds, the occupancy rate is 50 per cent.
Until six years ago, the facility was functioning to its full capacity. The number of in-patients has been decreasing steadily by the year.
However, the fact that people such as Veeranna (38) have been coming here for treatment all the way from Gadag leaves a few questions unanswered. "I come here because there is no proper treatment available in my village," Veeranna said.
Read the full story at:
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=59013 _________________________________________________________________
Editorial Team:
Dr. Dinesh Kumar Sharma; dineshkumarsharma@gmail.com
Dr. Jatinder Singh; jatindersingh@vsnl.com
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