With limited drugs available, ICMR focuses on quick diagnosis of TB

With an objective to contain the spread of tuberculosis, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has formed a TB research consortium.

The aim of the members in the consortium is not only to contain the spread of TB but also prevent it from reaching complicated stages.

As the life saving drugs for treatment of TB is in shortage and its supply is regulated by the government, the team at ICMR is planning to counter TB through devising quicker diagnostic techniques.

While Bedaquiline, a foreign company manufactured drug was introduced last year in order to treat multi drug-resistant tuberculosis, the fact that the drug is patented has ensured that there is a shortage of the drug at least till 2023 till the the drug remains under patented manufacturing.

Other life saving drugs like Delamanid, Pretomanid and Linezolid also face similar provisional difficulties and are hard for patients to get.

Recently a petition was filed by a father of an 18-year-old daughter at the Delhi High Court.

The father had challenged certain laws which prevented his daughter who is suffering from multi drug resistant tuberculosis to be provided life saving drugs of Bedaquiline and Delamanid.Based on sources, due to the disease the weight of the girl had fallen from 48 to 20 kgs.

On January 19, the Delhi High Court may have provided relief to the girl's family by directing that the life saving drugs be supplied to her.

As there are no drugs which are manufactured indigenously, the shortage of life saving drugs is expected to be in short supply for patients affected by deadly forms of TB.

The team at ICMR now focuses to tackle the crisis of TB through better diagnostic techniques and devising new methods by which the detection to the disease can be made quicker.

"We are working on four areas to tackle the crisis of TB. These are therapeutics, vaccination, diagnosis and implementation. Though we are in touch with the pharmaceutical companies, the fact they are not tested and manufactures in India allows them to be patented. They are therefore in limited shortage. Our focus is therefore on quick detection of the disease and ensures that the survival rates of the patient can be ensured," said a senior doctor who is a part of ICMR TB research consortium.

"It takes around three weeks and various tests for the detection of the disease. We hope to work on simplification of the process," added the doctor.

There were over 2 million cases of TB reported from India in 2016. Delhi too has high number of TB patients due to higher rate of migrations and lack of reporting done by the Private medical institutions of the patients affected by TB.