26 October 2009
Pune, India
The failure of the tuberculosis (TB) control programme in India stems from the failure to interpret biomedical factors in the light of social inequalities. This is the reason why TB has remained one of the biggest causes of death for over 40 years, said research associate Sachin Atre from the Centre for Health Research and Development.
Atre was speaking at a special session on tuberculosis organised by the Advocacy to Control Tuberculosis Internationally (ACTION) project, an international partnership of advocates working to mobilise resources to treat and prevent the spread of TB, on Sunday.
Elaborating on the reasons governing the failure of TB control programme, Atre further said, “Drug resistance is often attributed to a patient’s non–compliance with the therapeutic regimen.”
“Non–compliance, however, has many causes, such as poverty, gender discrimination, homelessness, and side effects of the anti–TB drugs themselves, and how they affect individuals in different settings,” said Atre.
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