The Hinduja Hospital has landed itself in a controversy after the Centre has claimed that the hospital is not qualified to undertake tests for detecting cases of Total Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (TDR-TB). Earlier, the hospital had claimed that it had found 12 such cases, which sent the government into a tizzy.
The health ministry maintains that the hospital’s laboratory is not accredited to undertake such tests. The Centre also accused the hospital of spreading “unnecessary panic”.
Speaking to this newspaper, the director general of health services (DGHS) Dr Jagdish Prasad said, “A notice has been sent to the hospital as their laboratory is not accredited to conduct these high-end tests. We have asked them to give details regarding the tests that were conducted on these patients,” he said.
As of now there are only two government-run laboratories — National Tuberculosis Laboratory in Bengaluru and National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai — that have the capacity to conduct tests on second line treatment. “These are hi-tech laboratories accredited by WHO-approved laboratories,” he added.
Blaming the hospital for spreading “unnecessary panic” in the country the DGHS further said that Hinduja Hospital deliberately used the word “total drug resistance” which is not even a term identified by the WHO. “These could actually be those extensive drug resistant (XDR) cases that are known. There is nothing called TDR,” added Dr Prasad. However, even XDR has a very miniscule chance of cure.
Meanwhile, Dr Zahrir Udwadia consultant physician at Hinduja Hospital and who has been at the forefront of TDR TB diagnosis in India in an email said, “There are 27 WHO designated Intermediate Reference National Labs (IRNLs) in the country. The Hinduja is one of them.” He went on to add that the Mumbai Directly Observed Treatment Short programmes send all suspected multi-drug resistant samples to this very laboratory as they lack the facilities to do drug susceptibility testing in any government-based lab in the city. “Instead of shooting the messenger, they should admit that a decade of neglect of MDR-TB patients by the public sector has resulted in TDR-TB,” he said
Meanwhile, medical director of Hinduja Hospital Dr Gustad Daver said, “We have not received any such notice from the government. As and when we get the intimation we will respond to that and will certainly will comply in all manners.”
The Centre on Monday sent a team of experts to Mumbai to look into the details after Hinduja Hospital claimed to have detected TDR-TB bacilli in 12 patients during their research in October 2011. While, one of them died a month later the hospital has since reported the death of one more patient.