India to release world’s first kid-friendly TB drug | Fusion - WeRIndia

Seven years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) gave approved guidelines for the treatment of tuberculosis in children.

Now, India is set to become the largest country globally to release world’s first kid friendly TB drugs. These drugs would be easily dissolved and come with a flavor.

The child friendly drugs are made from a combination of two or more medicines in a fixed dose combination (FDC).

These drugs were recently introduced by the government’s TB control program in six states. It is set to be launched in the rest of the states this year.

TB is a huge problem not just in India but all over the world. According to WHO, it kills more than 400 people everyday!

What India is launching could be revolutionary in changing the situation about this disease. India alone has about 75,000 pediatric TB cases, and 17 lakh adult TB patients according to government estimates.

Dr Sunil Khaparde, DDG, ministry of health and family welfare, and head, central TB division says that India will be the first country in the world to offer the largest number of kid-friendly FDCs.

This is expected to happen by the end of this year. The government is also planning to improve diagnostics using 1,300-odd GeneXpert machines. Using that many machines will give one machine per 10 lakh people.

 

The treatment of TB generally needs multiple drugs to be taken for a minimum of six months. This is especially problematic for children. The medicine are usually very bitter and children usually end up spitting them out.

Furthermore, getting the correct dose manually by combining other drugs is also rather hard.

This new innovation helps solve both those problems.

According to Vijay Agarwal, director of MacLeod’s Pharmaceuticals, pediatric drugs enough for 2 lakh children were supplied in 36 countries since December 2015.

Image Reference: DoctorTipster, HealtheNews