TDR-TB tests: Health Ministry sends notice to Hinduja Hospital

"The doctors from Hinduja have unnecessarily raised a panic alarm. The term TDR is not recognised by the WHO or the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). As of now, they are only slotted as XDR-TB cases," said an official from the Directorate of Health Services.

The official also said the RNTCP has accredited only three labs in the country to perform quality assured second line anti-TB tests. "We have asked Hinduja Hospital to send details about the tests that were performed. These are high-end tests and as of now, the RNTCP has accredited only the National TB Institute (Bangalore), LRS Institute of TB and Chest Institute (New Delhi ) and National Institute of Research in TB (Chennai) to perform second line anti-TB tests," the official said.

Hinduja officials, on the other hand, said this is another expression of the "denial mode" that the Health Ministry had earlier responded with. "It is sad that instead of focusing on the real issue, the ministry decides to raise these trivial issues. To set the record straight, Hinduja is one of the 27 WHO-designated Intermediate Reference National Laboratories (IRNLs) in the city," said Dr Zarir Udwadia, who headed the team at Hinduja that diagnosed the 12 TDR-TB patients. Udwadia said while they are yet to receive a notice from the ministry, there are willing to give a detailed report of all tests performed.

Dr K S Sachdeva, additional director general of the Central TB division; Maulik Parmar, advisor with the WHO and Jayant Banthia, Additional Chief Secretary, health and family welfare department, met local health officials at Arogya Bhavan after a visit to the Sewree TB Hospital, JJ Hospital and Hinduja Hospital. "We are still at the information-gathering stage. After a thorough analysis, we will be able to formulate a plan for the disease," Banthia said.

The BMC also started its sensitisation workshop with 70 dctors at KEM Hospital on Monday.

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