A team from National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) examined 25 TB patients in Chennai who consumed food just before they took their medication.

CHENNAI: From two deaths every three minutes to having the highest tuberculosis burden in the world, most surveys related to TB in India throw a startling number. And here is one more: Close to 9% of all paediatric tuberculosis patients are resistant to rifampicin, one of the first-line drugs used in the treatment of the infectious disease. This is 6% more than what was previously estimated, a study covering four metros in the country has found.

CHENNAI: Doctors are waging a losing battle against tuberculosis with chemists indiscriminately selling drugs over the counter. Four months after the Union health ministry's ban on the sale of 46 drugs without prescription, the contribution of pharmacists in the city to the growing pool of drug-resistant bacteria remains unabated.

CHENNAI: Experts may fret about overprescription of drugs for tuberculosis, but it has emerged that central health authorities' mandatory dosage of a key drug for HIV-infected patients with the disease is too low for it to be effective.

CHENNAI: In the battle against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, the last line of defence seems one that can be easily breached. A key drug prescribed to treat the complex bacterial infection is of substandard quality, a study conducted in eight districts in Tamil Nadu has found.

CHENNAI: The Partnership for TB Care and Control in India (PTCC), a coalition of over 170 organizations from across the country, has appealed to political parties to include tuberculosis as a critical public health issue in their election manifestos.

CHENNAI: At a time when the medical community is grappling with ways to battle multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, doctors are facing another problem - poor results while treating TB patients over the age of 60.