The Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday issued a press release stating that that 12 cases of ‘totally drug-resistant’ tuberculosis (TDR-TB) detected at Hinduja Hospital fall “within the category of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB)” and not TDR-TB.
Hinduja Hospital, on January 6, announced the detection of 12 cases of TDR-TB, of which three patients died in the past two months.
On Wednesday, a team of TB experts from Delhi had announced that the 12 patients suffered from XXDR-TB (extremely drug resistant TB).
“Hinduja patients are resistant to more number of drugs as compared to XDR-TB patients, so I spoke of XXDR-TB. This is a new phenomenon and is not yet defined by the World Health Organisation. We are yet to agree on a definition for this,” said Dr SK Jindal, chairman, Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS)-plus programme. Jindal was part of the team of central TB experts who visited Mumbai early this week. However, on Friday, the Centre reclassified them as XDR-TB. The Centre has objected to the use of the term TDR-TB stating that it is not “endorsed by the WHO.”
The press release added that the nine surviving patients would be given treatment free by the state government under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme.