Patna girl to reach Mumbai once TB drug is available

MUMBAI: The Patna girl who won access to the latest anti-tuberculosis drug, Bedaquiline, after a court order, may take a while to come to the city and start the medicine course. The court had directed that the girl should be allocated the drug from the KEM Hospital’s quota and administered under the supervision of PD Hinduja Hospital doctors.
Her father told TOI on Sunday that they were relieved after the order.“We will come to Mumbai once the formalities are over and the drug is available for my daughter. She is currently battling liver infection and is in great discomfort. She is unable to eat properly and barely gets sleep,” said the father, a class-III government official in Patna, who moved court after a Delhi hospital refused the drug citing domicile.
The girl has been in and out of hospital for the last few days. “We have brought her home now. We did not want to admit her. Doctors have run some ultrasound scans. It seems the liver infection is some sort of a side-effect caused by medicines that she had been taking. But we don't know for sure,” said the father, who started his fight with the government for the drug last October. He said the girl has undergone all requisite tests when they were recently in the city to consult chest physician Dr Zarir Udwadia. “We are hopeful that the medicines will arrive soon,” the father said.
Mumbai’s TB control officer Dr Daksha Shah said they were awaiting the court order. “We have learnt about the verdict. The Bedaquiline programme is being run by the KEM Hospital’s chest department. There are adequate doses,” she said. Bedaquiline is being provided to a group of meticulously selected patients at six sites in India, including KEM Hospital, under the ‘Conditional Access Programme’; 56 patients are getting the drug in Mumbai.
“In this case, the drug will be provided under compassionate grounds to the patient,” said Dr Sunil Khaparde, deputy director general of the TB control programme. He said the centres have been allocated the drug as per their patient load. “We have got 600 doses of Bedaquiline for an equal number of patients. We are looking at expanding the programme,” he said. Currently, 164 patients are getting the drug across the six centres.