According to Dr Rajesh Chawla, current president of the Delhi Medical Association (DMA), quacks cannot be expected to know the scientific basis for the new directly observed treatment-short course (DOTS) therapy. ``The problem is much more than the ethical practice of medicine there is a serious danger posed to society by the indiscriminate prescription of antibiotics by quacks and it is for the government to act,'' says Dr Chawla.

According to him, even many qualified doctors are unaware of the new world health organisation (WHO)-approved DOTS which requires close monitoring of the TB patients for up to eight months while they take a cocktail of four to five powerful anti-TB drugs every alternate day.

Other TB specialists like Dr S.M. Govil of the Ryder Cheshire Foundation, which has a major anti-TB programme running in the Capital and five other states, say much of the problem comes from the fact that anti-TB drugs are freely available at chemists' shops. ``Anti-TB drugs must never be sold except on the prescription of a specialist and it is time that the public is made aware of the dangers.'' One of the dangers, Dr Govil says, is that an MDRTB patient can infect someone with resistant strains who then has to be given appropriate treatment after testing the cultured strains for drug sensitivity.

According to a primary study conducted by the WHO, up to 14 per cent of the estimated 14 million TB patients in India could be suffering from the drug-resistant variety and many of them are spreading it further.

Other estimates place the MDRTB percentage higher. At the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), up to 70 percent of the TB patients reporting for treatment have the drug-resistant variety. Few patients can be getting adequate treatment because of lack of drugs, doctors and basic facilities at many of the primary health centres.

A case in point is the sprawling Jhandewalan slums in central Delhi where half of the 35,000-odd dwellers are estimated to be suffering from TB.