Dear Editor
This refers to your editorial “Fighting TB” (March 23). India has close to 1 lakh cases of drug-resistant TB & most of them remain undiagnosed and untreated. Close to 100 per cent of the country is covered by DOTS but still the death rates from TB have risen over the years.India’s TB programme needs a focussed and accommodative strategy. Early and accurate culture-sensitivity based diagnosis is key to
success of the TB control program. Greater awareness among the public is need of the hour on the causes and symptoms of the disease and the treatment options available in India and also that even if TB drugs had hit the market 40 years ago, the disease is yet to be eradicated because patients either do not get well treatment or they take the decease lightly. Unless tuberculosis patients realise that they have to adhere to the mandatory drug regimen, they can neither be cured of the
disease, nor its eradication can be achieved.
Vinod C. Dixit
B-15 Jyotikalash Society,
Ahmedabad