patients from 120 clusters representing the country are
expected to be enrolled for the survey. The samples
collected would be subjected to a 13 drug DST (five first-line
drugs and eight second-line drugs) using liquid culture
systems. The survey will provide a statistically
representative national estimate of the prevalence of antituberculosis
drug resistance among new and previously
treated patients in India, and will contribute to a more
accurate estimate of anti-tuberculosis drug resistance
globally.
At a global level, India is the first among both the 22 highburden
TB and first among the 27 high MDR TB burden
countries and this survey is considered ground breaking as it
will provide a unique data set for both national and global
level information on drug resistant TB and management. l
Dr Kuldeep Singh Sachdeva is an expert in tuberculosis and chest
diseases and health management with more than 30 years of
experience. He is currently serving as Additional Deputy Director
General, Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare, Government of India. He has extensive experience in
programmatic management of drug resistant tuberculosis and is
overseeing the implementation of largest ever and nationally
representative Drug Resistance Survey in India. He is a core group
member of WHOs Global Drug Resistance Initiative (GDI) and
also Vice Chair of the Regional Green Light Committee of WHO
South East Region.
Dr S Anand, a graduate in Microbiology, obtained his Master's
degree in Applied Microbiology with a University rank. He also has
a Master's in Environment and Ecology, and M Phil as well as PhD
in Biotechnology. He is currently working as a Consultant
Microbiologist at the Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, Government of India. He has served as Unit Head
of the National Reference Laboratory at the National TB Institute,
Bangalore. He has industrial R&D experience and has also spent
over a decade in teaching undergraduate and post graduate
students of Microbiology and Biotechnology.
Dr Ranjani Ramachandran is an expert in the field of TB
bacteriology with a post-graduate in medical microbiology from
Madras Medical College. She also has post-graduate degree in
Internal Medicine from National Board of Examinations. She has
pursued her doctoral research in the field of TB-HIV opportunistic
infections. She started her career as a clinical scientist working in
the field of TB research including randomized clinical trials, field
surveys in TB-HIV and then moved to laboratory medicine, TB
drug resistance surveys and research in evaluation of new
diagnostic tools. She has more than two decades of experience of
working in the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis
(ICMR) Chennai and then moved to the World Health
Organization as Medical Officer TB labs in 2009 and is at present
the Technical Officer (Labs) at the WHO India country Office for
India since 2012.
CONFRONTING ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
92 AMR CONTROL 2015