24th March is World TB Day. This book, written by several experts, is made freely available to the Indian medical community at www.letstalktb.org
About the Book:
While much progress has been made with tuberculosis (TB) control, the WHO estimates that 9 million people developed TB in 2013, and 1.5 million died of TB. India accounts for 25% of the global TB burden, and for a third of the ‘missing cases’ that do not get diagnosed or notified. The emergence of severe forms of drug-resistance has further complicated the picture. More than 50% of India’s TB patients seek care in the private sector, and private providers and GPs are often the first point of care even for patients treated in the public sector. Unfortunately, private practitioners rarely adhere to national and international standards, and there is plenty of evidence that quality of TB care is often suboptimal. This results in emergence of drug-resistance, and also explains the high TB mortality rate in India.
This supplement to GP Clinics is an effort to engage and educate GPs and private practitioners in India, and to share with them the current best practices on TB diagnosis and treatment. It is a compilation of a series of articles published in GP Clinics over the past two years.
The book can be widely shared.
Dr Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD
Professor, McGill University, Montreal
Associate Director, McGill International TB Center