Shorter treatment for chronic TB patients
The state government on Saturday started a shorter cure for chronic tuberculosis (TB) patients. A shorter multiple drug resistant (MDR) TB regimen for drug resistant TB (DR-TB) patients was initiated in the state on World Tuberculosis Day.
State TB officer Dr DK Kala said two DR-TB patients have been initiated on treatment with ‘Shorter MDR-TB Regimen’ for the first time as per the ‘Guidelines on Programmatic Management of Drug-Resistant TB (PMDT) in India-2017’ at Nodal DR-TB Centre, located at the Institute of Respiratory Disease (IRD) in Jaipur.
The patients identified with the DR-TB, coming from Alwar and Bharatpur districts, were initiated on the treatment under observation of Dr RK Jenaw, head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, IRD.
All MDR-TB patients and patients with confirmed Rifampicin-resistant (RR) disease, having no history of previous exposure for more than a month to a fluoroquinolones or a second-line injectable medicine can be treated with the shorter MDR-TB regimen.
Dr Kala informed that total duration of shorter MDR-TB regimen is 9 to 11 months, depending on Intensive phase (IP) duration. IP is given for at least four months. After fourth month of treatment, if the result of sputum microscopy is negative, then continuous phase (CP) of treatment is initiated. If sputum smear does not become microscopy negative by the fourth month of treatment, the IP is prolonged for a maximum of two months. Duration of CP is fixed for five months. IP consists of treatment with seven anti-TB drugs and CP consists of treatment with four anti-TB drugs for five months.
Dr Narendra Khippal, senior professor, IRD said patients who received shorter MDR-TB treatment regimens (9-11 months) had a statistically-significant higher likelihood of treatment success of 90.3% than those who received longer conventional regimens (24-27 months), as the success rate was 78.3%.
According to the official data, Rajasthan registered 1,06,947 TB patients from January 1 to December 31, 2017, and approximately 25,000 patients of MDR TB.
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