26 January 2012 - New Delhi - In response to reports of highly drug-resistant TB cases in Mumbai, the Partnership for TB Care and Control in India has launched a call to action for a nationwide scale up in the TB response.
All actors working against TB in India, the call to action says, must increase their efforts to quickly and accurately diagnose TB patients and ensure that they complete their treatment. Inaccurate diagnosis and failure to complete courses of treatment are two of the main reasons for the emergence of drug-resistant TB.
The call to action says that TB patients' families and communities need to become more involved in TB care in order to reduce the stigma associated with the disease; and efforts must be made to proactively involve private and civil society organizations in the fight against TB. Moreover, failure to act against TB will make it extremely difficult for India to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.