According to the Dr Subramanian Swaminathan – Senior Consultant, Infectious Disease, Gleneagles Global Health City said “Treatment for Tuberculosis has undergone modifications in recent times. The thrice-weekly intermittent TB regimen has been given up and a daily regimen emphasized. Also Adherence to treatment has been enhanced by newer innovations like using basic mobile phones and augmented packaging for medication where patients call toll-free lines which are visible when they dispense pills, However, management of tuberculosis continues to face several challenges like Drug compliance continues to be big challenge, as patients may take a treatment just until they feel well, which can foster the development of resistance and lead to the spread of the disease.
The newer NAA tests are not available at the point-of-care (POC) in remote areas. The diagnosis of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) still remains a problem due to the difficulty in obtaining appropriate clinical sample, especially from the non reachable sites and secondly due to the poor sensitivity of diagnostic tests for these conditions. In addition, many comorbid conditions other than TB like HIV, Diabetes, renal & liver disorders, transplant recipients can complicate treatment regimens and The failure in inventing newer drugs despite extensive research adds further to the disease burden added Dr Subramanian Swaminathan.
Diagnostics in tuberculosis has advanced in this decade with invent of Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAA). Compared with routine cultures, NAA tests can detect the presence of M. tuberculosis bacteria in a specimen weeks before culture. The Xpert MTB/RIF assay, a novel, a rapid and automated form of NAA testing that can detect TB along with rifampicin resistance directly from sputum within two hours of collection. Then there are the Line Probe Assay (LPA) tests for genetic resistance to medications used to treat TB said, Dr Subramanian Swaminathan
