Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a pan-India rollout of a shorter three-month treatment program for the prevention of TB on Friday as part of his efforts to make India Tuberculosis free by 2025.
The existing treatment required patients to follow a six-month plan.
To mark World Tuberculosis Day, the One World TB Summit was held in Uttar Pradesh state's Varanasi city where Prime Minister Modi said that in the new system, the patient will have to take medicine only once a week instead of every day for six months.
According to the experts, the new Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment (TPT) (3HP-isoniazid–rifapentine) will result in a significant reduction in the treatment length and pill burden.
PM Modi Vows TB Free India by 2025, Launches Preventive 3-Month Treatment
© Photo : Twitter/G_C_T_A
PM Modi lauded the efforts of Indian pharma companies and said that almost 80 percent of tuberculosis medicines are made in India.
The government has also increased the number of laboratories and special plans are made for those where TB patients are concentrated.
Last week, hundreds of people, along with the Global Coalition of TB Advocates, signed an open letter to Modi, urging him to introduce a shorter, more effective treatment for TB.
It also recommended the government deploy all tools and new treatment regimens like BPaLM/BPaL and a scale-up of TB Preventive Treatment.
"The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners will be launching a call to action for a rapid roll-out of the novel BPaLM/BPaL regimen for drug-resistant TB that has the potential to dramatically increase cure rates due to its high efficacy, allow broader access due to its lower cost and improve patient quality of life as this regimen is all-oral and significantly shorter than conventional treatment regimens," the letter reads.
Blessina Kumar, CEO of the Global Coalition of TB Advocates, told Sputnik that the need of the hour is to start a nationwide program to achieve the mission to make India TB-free.
"We are in 2023 and 2025 is around the corner. The target has made everybody work really hard and put mechanisms in place, whether it really happens or not is a different question. We need multiple stakeholder interventions of the government of India, the NGOs, the civil society, and the affected communities to come together and play their part in his mission," Kumar told Sputnik.
Kumar added that the most important thing that can help in achieving the mission of TB-free India is early diagnosis and the start of the treatment session.
"I think we need to remove all barriers to access and ensure that the results of research and development are made available to the people who need it most,” she added.
Previously, India launched several campaigns to fight tuberculosis including 'Ni-kshay Mitra' through which one million TB patients were adopted by common citizens.
Since 2018, INR 20 billion ($242.55 million) has been sent directly to the bank accounts of tuberculosis patients and about 7.5 million patients have benefited from it.