BACKGROUND: In 1993, Government of India started the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). A model Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (DOTS) centre was established at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to (i) identify the challenges and opportunities in establishing DOTS centres at tertiary care facilities, (ii) to teach the strategies of RNTCP to medical and paramedical staff, and (iii) to undertake relevant operational research connected with tuberculosis (TB) treatment and control. In this communication, we describe the experience of establishing a DOTS centre at India's premier medical institute and discuss the lessons learned. METHODS: Since September 2001 through November 2002 AIIMS employees and their dependants diagnosed with tuberculosis were enrolled for treatment at AIIMS DOTS centre. One hundred sixty-eight patients were diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis. Of these 49 patients were referred out and remaining 119 patients were treated at AIIMS DOTS centre. RESULTS: Treatment success was achieved in 80% (20/25) of new smear positive cases and the DOTS centre achieved other targets set up by the RNTCP. As the results of the pilot study at AIIMS DOTS centre were favourable, the facilities of AIIMS DOTS centre were extended to the general public from September 2002 onwards. CONCLUSION: Despite tremendous patient load at tertiary care facilities, it is possible to achieve targets established by the RNTCP. However, additional research needs to be conducted especially relating to drug resistance and surrogate markers of failure under RNTCP.
BACKGROUND: In 1993, Government of India started the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). A model Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (DOTS) centre was established at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to (i) identify the challenges and opportunities in establishing DOTS centres at tertiary care facilities, (ii) to teach the strategies of RNTCP to medical and paramedical staff, and (iii) to undertake relevant operational research connected with tuberculosis (TB) treatment and control. In this communication, we describe the experience of establishing a DOTS centre at India's premier medical institute and discuss the lessons learned. METHODS: Since September 2001 through November 2002 AIIMS employees and their dependants diagnosed with tuberculosis were enrolled for treatment at AIIMS DOTS centre. One hundred sixty-eight patients were diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis. Of these 49 patients were referred out and remaining 119 patients were treated at AIIMS DOTS centre. RESULTS: Treatment success was achieved in 80% (20/25) of new smear positive cases and the DOTS centre achieved other targets set up by the RNTCP. As the results of the pilot study at AIIMS DOTS centre were favourable, the facilities of AIIMS DOTS centre were extended to the general public from September 2002 onwards. CONCLUSION: Despite tremendous patient load at tertiary care facilities, it is possible to achieve targets established by the RNTCP. However, additional research needs to be conducted especially relating to drug resistance and surrogate markers of failure under RNTCP.
Authors: Surendra K Sharma; Alladi Mohan; L S Chauhan; J P Narain; P Kumar; D Behera; K S Sachdeva; Ashok Kumar; Priyanka Agarwal; N T Awadh; Avi Bansal; S Baruah; Pranab Baruwa; V H Balasangameshwara; Rani Balasubramanian; A K Bhardwaj; Salil Bhargav; Sarabjit Chadha; V K Chaddha; Manpreet Chhatwal; A L Da Costa; D P Dash; Jaydip Dep; Saroj Dhingra; S Dhooria Harmeet; T R Frieden; Anil Garg; Reuben Granich; Vinay Gulati; Deepak Gupta; Dheeraj Gupta; K B Gupta; K N Gupta; A K Janmeja; M S Jawahar; S L Jethani; S K Jindal; K R John; O P Kalra; V P Kalra; A T Kannan; S Kayshap; G Keshav Chander; S S Khushwa; R S Kushwaha; Vinod Kumar; B Laskar; K R Leela Itty Amma; A T Leuva; K Maitra Malay; A M Mesquita; Thomas Mathew; Yamuna Mundade; Radha Munje; Somil Nagpal; C Nagaraja; Sanjeev Nair; O R Narayanan; C N Paramasivan; Malik Parmar; Rajendra Prasad; A C Phukan; Raj Prasanna; Anil Purty; Ranjani Ramachandran; Rajeswari Ramachandran; C Ravindran; H R Reddy Raveendra; S Sahu; Rohit Sarin; Soumya Sarkar; K C Sarma; P Saxena; Shruti Sehgal; N Sharath; Geetanjali Sharma; Nandini Sharma; P K Shridhar; R S Shukla; Om Singh; N Tombi Singh; Varinder Singh; Rupak Singla; Neena Sinha; Pranay Sinha; Sanjay Sinha; Rajesh Solanki; A Sreenivas; S Srinath; Kandi Subhakar; J C Suri; Palash Talukdar; Jamie Tonsing; S P Tripathy; Preetish Vaidyanathan; R P Vashist; K Venu Journal: Indian J Med Res Date: 2013-02 Impact factor: 2.375