BHUBANESWAR: More than 40 per cent of the population in India carry the tuberculosis bacteria though their microbiological test reports are found to be negative, said an expert on the disease.
Speaking at a programme organised to observe the World TB Week at the Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital, professor at Sri Jagannath Medical College Hospital in Puri, Dr Sudarsan Pothal said although people carry the bacteria, the disease does not get manifested in them and only around 10 per cent of them develop the disease subsequently.
“However, these asymptomatic TB cases keep spreading the disease. The need is to screen all patients coming to a doctor or hospital for treatment of any disease to detect latent tuberculosis in them. This can be done by using portable X-ray machines. The silent carriers will continue to grow and spread the disease unless transmission is stopped through screening,” he said.
Dr Pothal said the new combination of four drugs - Bedaquiline (B), Pretomanid (Pa), Linezolid (L), and Moxifloxacin (M) - BPaLM regimen of treatment to fight tuberculosis has proved to be safe and effective while providing a quicker treatment option compared to other modes of treatment practised till now. The treatment is also for a much shorter duration of 26 to 38 weeks, he said.
Consultant thoracic surgeon at the Institute of Chest Surgery, Chest Onco-surgery and Lung Transplantation at Medanta Dr Mohan Venkatesh Pulle said earlier tuberculosis was being treated only by surgeons as surgery was the treatment of choice before 1940. The development of thoracic surgery was completely based on treatment of tuberculosis over a period of 100 years, he said.
Medical superintendent of IMS and SUM Hospital Dr Pusparaj Samantasinghar and head of Department of Respiratory Medicine and president of Odisha Chest Society Dr Banani Jena also spoke.