Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College to provide wonder drug Bedaquiline free to TB patients

AGRA

: In a move that will bring huge relief to patients suffering from Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) Tuberculosis (

TB

), Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (

JNMC

), Aligarh Muslim University will provide the expensive drug,

Bedaquiline

, free to a select group of patients undergoing treatment at the hospital. A six-month course of the drug would otherwise cost over Rs 65, 000 in other hospitals.

Launching Bedaquiline at JNMC, S C Sharma, dean, faculty of medicine, said, “Bedaquiline is billed as a potential wonder drug solution to treat multi-drug-resistant TB," said Sharma. In the last few years, the drug has come as a ray of hope for patients, he added..

Zuber Ahmad, nodal officer and in charge of DR-TB Centre, JNMC said the free distribution of Bedaquiline drug for all drug-resistant TB patients holds a lot of significance as almost all the drug-resistant TB patients struggle to keep up with the traditional regimen for treating MDR TB.

Dr AP Bhaskar, DTO, Aligarh pointed out that that some months ago, the Bedaquiline drug was not available in the market and now, patients are being administered it at JNMC for free.

Haris M Khan, medical superintendent, said JNMC will provide all the support to patients regarding investigations in their treatment.

Mohammad Shamim (chairman, department of TB and respiratory diseases), Rakesh Bhargav and Dr Ummul Baneen also spoke on the occasion. Chairmen of various other JNMC departments were also present.