Following the death of two more Total Drug Resistant (TDR) tuberculosis patients in Mumbai, the Union and the state governments has decided to take urgent precautions and quarantine them immediately.
State officials briefed Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was in the city on Saturday. “The identified cases of TDR-TB will be isolated in a sanatorium at Jaisinghpur, Sangli soon. The state government will give free treatment and take care of the diet of these patients. The Union government has agreed to help us with free medical kits,” Suresh Shetty, the state health minister said.
In the meeting, it was also decided that drug sensitivity tests would be started in the JJ Hospital laboratory from Monday.
The BMC has been asked to start its own lab within three months.
The Centre’s tuberculosis division team that handles the tuberculosis management programme in the country, has also advanced its visit from Wednesday to Monday. The decision was taken in the meeting held at the Sahyadri state guest house on Saturday.
The state government will be sending a notification to private hospitals and practitioners to report the TDR-TB cases to the authorities. “We will have a surveillance system in place for TDR-TB like we had for malaria management,” said Mr Shetty. The suspected TDR-TB cases will be tested and monitored and in case the patient is tested positive, the patient will be shifted to the sanatorium in Sangli.