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A RIGHT STEP TOWARDS TB ERADICATION

Ramesh Shankar
Wednesday, October 9, 2024, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

The Union Health Ministry has recently approved introduction of the much anticipated BPaLM regimen for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) as a highly effective and shorter treatment option. The BPaLM regimen consists of four-drug combination of Bedaquiline, Pretomanid, Linezolid and Moxifloxacin. This regimen has been proven to offer better outcomes, remarkably shortening the duration of treatment, and resulting in improvements in quality of life for persons living with MDR-TB, which resists treatment by isoniazid and rifampicin, the two hitherto frontline drugs in TB treatment. The BPaLM regimen has been proven to be safe, more effective and a quicker treatment option than the previous MDR-TB treatment procedure. While traditional MDR-TB treatments can last up to 20 months with severe side effects, BPaLM regimen can cure the drug-resistant TB in just six months with high treatment success rate. It is particularly significant in this country, because an estimated 75,000 people living with drug-resistant TB can now switch to this shorter, cheaper treatment regimen. A shorter regimen, such as BPaLM, which is all oral and requires lesser doses per day, will make it easier for a patient to adhere to and complete treatments. This move will undoubtedly improve treatment outcomes and help thousands of patients. With the other advantages, there will be an overall saving in cost also. Definitely, this will prove to be a turning point for the people living with drug-resistant tuberculosis, because India will finally replace many of the longer, arduous and less-effective treatments by offering better, safer and shorter BPaLM treatment that is much more likely to cure this deadly disease.

Of course, the introduction of BPaLM makes tremendous sense for a country like India which has voluntarily set itself an earlier target for TB elimination by 2025, five years ahead of the global target under the UN Sustainable Development Goals. TB elimination means there should be under one case of TB for a population of 10 lakh. During the last some years, the central government has introduced pivotal initiatives that are changing the way TB is diagnosed, treated and prevented in the country. To make India a TB-free nation by the year 2025, the Union Health Ministry has periodically been taking several laudable steps. The last few years have seen the country take definitive steps towards the elimination of tuberculosis from the country. The sustained efforts of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme have led to an unprecedented increase in TB notifications and significant improvements in timely diagnosis, adherence, and treatment outcomes. To eradicate this dreaded disease from the country, the ministry in the year 2018 made the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program more broad-based by mandating as many as 49,050 private clinics to prescribe free drugs to the TB patients. The government is implementing this scheme with the support of field level staff and an inventory management system called ‘Nikshay Aushadhi’ has been deployed for the purpose.  And, in October 2019, the health ministry had launched a country-wide ‘TB Harega Desh Jeetega’ campaign for community participation in the fight against TB. In September 2022, then Indian President Droupadi Murmu had launched the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan to reinvigorate the mission of TB elimination from the country by the year 2025. The President also launched the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative which forms a vital component of the Abhiyaan. The Ni-kshay Mitra portal provides a platform for donors to provide various forms of support to those undergoing TB treatment. Certainly, with the introduction of BPaLM regimen, the Union Health Ministry has taken a laudable initiative which will significantly boost the country’s progress to achieve its national goal of ending TB in India by the year 2025.

 

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