Mumbai patient suffering from drug-resistant TB first in country to get new treatment

A patient suffering from pre-highly drug-resistant tuberculosis (Pre-XDR TB) and admitted to a civic hospital here became the first in the country on Tuesday to start receiving `M-BPal' trial treatment, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said.

The patient is admitted to the corporation's Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Shatabdi hospital in suburban Govandi.

Under M-BPal Trial treatment one pill each of three-drugs -- bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid -- is given instead of the customary 10-22 pills, the civic body said.

The new regimen could also reduce the treatment period from 18 to 24 months to six months, it added.

The M-BPal treatment for drug-resistant TB is being introduced at nine centres across the county and two of them, namely the Malviya Shatabdi hospital and Sarvodaya hospital in Ghatkopar, are in Mumbai, the BMC said.

The treatment, also called NIX trial, was found to be 91 percent successful in South Africa, the BMC release said.

It was introduced in Mumbai through combined efforts of the BMC and Mumbai District Tuberculosis Control Institute, it said.

The treatment has been started under the supervision of Dr Vikas Oswal, chief researcher of this medicine in India.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)