[india-drug] High incidence of drug-resistant TB in India (2)

["Nusrat Shafiq" <nusrat_shafiq@hotmail.com>]

High incidence of drug-resistant TB in India (2)
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This is indeed alarming and very disappointing too. In the last many years funding agencies have doled out quite a lot of money for research in this field, and still we continue to remain ill-equipped. Are the funds going to places where they should not. Ours is a country of great intellect. Is it that those who can actually do meaningful research are not getting their due? Since cribbing seldom ever solves anything, it is time to take a look over at so many things. For instance when we knew the main reasons for development of MDR tuberculosis, why couldn't we target those causes at a war footing.  Now at least we should give ourselves time lines for deciding where we go from here.
I feel health care workers at primary care levels should be strengthened in a massive way. They could be given training with structured modules for achieving decided targets and they should be given incentives for achieving the targets (altruism, though great, is a rarity and we must wake up to this reality). The quality check systems for ensuring the funds are being directed in the correct direction would be tremendously helpful. If so many societies, the world over, have been able to lower the incidence of tuberculosis significantly, I don?t see any reason why we should not.

Nusrat Shafiq
Email: nusrat_shafiq@hotmail.com
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