Inadequate Government TB Program, Lax Drug Sale Regulations Contributing To MDR-TB Cases In India, Health Groups Say

"India's inadequate government-run tuberculosis [TB] treatment programs and a lack of regulation of the sale of drugs that fight the disease are responsible for the [increasing] number of drug-resistant cases that are difficult to treat," health advocacy organizations said in India last week, the Associated Press/Huffington Post reports. "India adds an estimated 99,000 cases of drug-resistant TB every year, but only a tiny fraction of those infected receive the proper" six- to nine-month antibiotic regimen, according to the AP. In India, government-run TB treatment programs only provide drugs to patients on alternate days, increasing the likelihood of missed doses, and patients increasingly are turning to private physicians who are unaware of how to treat the disease, Medecins Sans Frontieres in India and other health groups said, the news agency reports. "The Indian government had no response Friday to requests for comment on the activists' allegations," the AP writes (Naqvi, 3/23).