The Supreme Court on Monday gave the government nine months to replace the thrice-a-week dosage norm of tuberculosis drugs with a daily dosage regimen recently approved by the World Health Organisation to curb relapse and deaths during treatment.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar directed the government to ensure that efforts are made so that the patients across the country are administered the new dosage regimen.
The Bench, while passing the directions, disposed of a PIL plea filed by doctor and TB specialist Raman Kakkar seeking change in the protocol for treatment of TB.
Mr. Kakkar had termed the current dosage practice “unscientific” and “improper.”
It promoted relapses and generated a lethal drug-resistant strain in patients, he said. The relapsed cases were harder to treat than first-time infections, he noted.
