Need to maintain prices, supply of drug-resistant tuberculosis medicines: Médecins Sans Frontières

New Delhi: March 24, 2011

As a new rapid diagnostic test, endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will finally help detect more people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), there was need to solve problems around the pricing and supply of DR-TB medicines, according to a report by international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The DR-TB is on the rise, but less than 7 per cent of 4,40,000 new cases each year receive treatment. It kills 150,000 people in the world annually, according to the WHO. India is one of the countries with the highest burden of DR-TB cases in the world, with more than 99,000 new cases each year.

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