Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao on Wednesday inaugurated the daily regimen of administering medication to tuberculosis patients under the Revised National TB Control Programme at the Government General Hospital here.
According to a release, under the new daily drug regimen, TB patients will be given fixed drug combinations (FDCs) — two to five tablets on a daily basis. The government was so far following the intermittent regimen in which the patient was given seven pills on alternate days.
Under the new regimen, the drugs will also be administered in a more scientific manner according to the patient’s weight. Hence, side effects of the drugs will be less and tolerability will be better.
The health department will administer one month of drugs to each patient and will also ensure Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) strategy by increasing the supervision and monitoring. TB will be curable by following the daily regimen for six to eight months.
With one-fourth of the global TB cases reported in India, the disease still remains a major challenge. As many as 27 lakh TB patients are diagnosed every year including 1,400 in Puducherry alone.
The introduction of the daily regimen is expected to improve the treatment adherence and reduction in relapse rate. K.V. Raman, Director of Health Services and T. Kalimuthu, Mission Director, participated.
