The National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP) has included Serum-Mylab’s indigenously developed latent test to detect tuberculosis to further its effort to eliminate the infectious disease by 2025.

The study, recently published in the journal Cureus, also found that a severe form of vitamin D deficiency -- less than 10 nanogrammes per millilitre (ng/mL) -- was higher among children with TB.

Two major clinical trials have been initiated with an aim to generate clinical evidence on the safety and efficacy of novel, short and all-oral regimens for strains of tuberculosis (TB) that are most difficult to treat.

PD Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre has been chosen as the country’s nodal center for a global genome study of 1 lakh TB patients to examine bacterial resistance in them. India will screen at least 6,000 patients during the course of the four-year study.

The government is committed to achieving zero tuberculosis (TB) deaths in the country by ensuring affordable and quality healthcare to all, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said on Wednesday (December 7). He said this at a round-table for Members of Parliament, policy makers and eminent tuberculosis experts, hosted by the Global Coalition Against TB at Parliament House Annexe in New Delhi.

The Union Health Ministry has introduced bedaquiline into the National TB program. This was among several initiatives Health Minister J P Nadda launched on Monday (March 21). Bedaquiline, which is a drug for multidrug-resistant TB, is being introduced at six identified tertiary care centres across India*.

Initial indications from the the first-ever tuberculosis drug resistance survey commissioned by the Ministry of Health show that around 2 per cent of new TB cases are resistant to some TB drugs while about 9 per cent of patients who have undergone TB treatment previously and have again been diagnosed with the disease are infected by the drug-resistant variety.