'More focus needed on research on MDR tuberculosis in India'

There is a need for more focus on the research on multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis in India, which accounts for 24 per cent of all TB cases globally, a clinical research body said today.
Research will lead to the development of innovative treatment for drug-resistant TB, thereby reducing the country's TB burden, bring down health-care costs and accelerate progress towards becoming TB-free by 2025 , it said.
"Unite for TB calls on all health-care stakeholders, including research and development professionals to work together in addressing the big scourge of TB. Drug discovery is a lengthy and intensive process and requires substantial investments.

"WHO reports that the last time a drug was introduced specifically for the treatment of TB was in the late 1960s. Resistance to antimicrobials is growing at a faster rate than discovery of newer, more potent drugs to overcome that resistance," President of Indian Society for Clinical Research (ISCR) Suneela Thatte said.
According to Global Tuberculosis Report 2016 of the World Health Organisation (WHO), India accounts for 24 per cent of all TB cases in the world and the spread of tuberculosis in India is larger than previously projected.
While India has been engaged in tuberculosis control efforts for decades now, TB continues to remain one of its greatest public health challenges.

The disease is estimated to kill 480,000 Indians every year although it is now believed that these numbers are under-represented and the mortality could be 500,000 a year.

"It is crucial that India focuses its research efforts on developing solutions for drug-resistant TB," Thatte said reiterating ISCR's commitment to the theme "Unite to End TB" on World Tuberculosis Day, which falls on March 24.
Global TB Report 2016 data indicates that close to 480,000 people contracted multi-drug resistant TB in 2015, and more than half of them stay in India, China and Russia.
Also, the treatment success rate of MDR-TB cases was less than 50 per cent in the countries with the largest cohorts, including India, an ISCR statement said.