AHMEDABAD: Three children and teens between 6 and 18 years, diagnosed with TB having extreme drug resistance (XDR-TB) are hoping to get a new lease of life. Their treatment started this year in Ahmedabad and Surat with a drug procured from abroad. It is one of the earliest programmes in this age group, said officials.

Dr Rajesh Solanki, professor with the TB and Chest Department at BJ Medical College and chief advisor to the national task force for TB, said that they recently received permission for starting the treatment.

“The three children having XDR-TB are undergoing treatment under close supervision. Our effort is to reduce the prevalence and improve diagnosis. Today, we have 60 machines for CB-NAAT (Cartridge Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test) to detect multi-drug resistant (MDR) cases in Gujarat. About 7% of the MDR-TB cases are extreme drug-resistant (XDR),” he said.

Dr Solanki said that each machine performs about 250-odd tests monthly.

“Once the cases are identified as MDR, they are sent to thee laboratories based at Ahmedabad, Surat and Jamnagar for identification of XDR. This way, we have identified 3,255 cases of MDR and 600-odd cases of XDR in 2018,” he said, adding that early diagnosis helps better case management.

Dr Tushar Patel, a city-based pulmonologist, said that March 24 is marked as World TB Day worldwide — it was the day when the discovery of TB was announced in 1882. “This year’s theme is ‘It’s Time - End TB.’ India bears the burden of about a quarter of global cases of TB and thus awareness is necessary to eradicate the disease completely by 2030,” he said.