India is a ‘high burden’ country for tuberculosis (TB) and has also been identified as a hot spot region for multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). There have been no reliable surveys to establish how common MDR-TB actually is in India, but estimates have been made of 2.5-2.8% and 14-17%, amongst new TB and retreated patients respectively. A study in Mumbai (1) suggests the true figure may be very much higher.

Researchers examined 724 patients in in four suboptimally performing hospital wards and found a high proportion of MDR-TB strains in both previously untreated (24%) and treatment-failure cases (41%).

The researchers say that India must have a better surveillance system in order as a first step towards halting the rise of MDR-TB. The sentinel sites currently used for surveillance tend to be in high-performing hospitals and thus are unlikely to give a true picture of the extent of the problem.

Reference
1. Dsouza DT, Mistry NF, Vira TS, Dholakia Y, Hoffner S, Pasvol G, Nicol M, Wilkinson RJ (2009). High levels of Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis in new and treatment-failure patients from the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme in an Urban metropolis (Mumbai) in Western India. BMC Public Health; 9(1):211.[Epub ahead of print]