New Delhi: Reacting to the Union health ministry’s statement on Tuesday, September 26, denying any shortage of medicines for patients suffering from drug-resistant TB, civil society groups working in the area of TB management slammed the Union government for disregarding the “very real struggles and suffering” of people on the ground.
Calling media reports ‘vague’, ‘ill–informed’ and ‘misleading’, the health ministry said in a statement, “All these drugs are available with sufficient stocks ranging six months and above.” The full statement can be found here.
The Wire published a piece on September 22, 2023, that cited family members of TB patients and people working to manage the disease in six states as saying that the acute shortage of drugs had hit patients suffering from drug-resistant TB very hard. The WHO’s TB programme head told The Wire that the UN agency was aware of and concerned about the situation in India. Two doctors The Wire spoke to also expressed concern – saying the shortage could have irreversible consequences for patients. The Union health ministry had not replied to the queries sent by The Wire.
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Responding to the ministry’s denial, a joint statement from five civil society groups said:
“The TB community in India consisting of TB survivors, TB Advocates, CCM members representing the TB affected community, Clinicians treating TB Patients and TB Champions are very concerned with the notice from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW)today saying that the TB Drugs stock out situation is a myth and a media hype.”
The organisations said that they were “up until today” inundated with “distressing appeals from patients, relatives and doctors alike who are grappling with difficulties in obtaining TB medications”.
The statement was endorsed by TB Mukth Vahini [Bihar]; ARK Foundation [Nagaland]; Global Coalition of TB Advocates, a global body of civil society groups; Rainbow TB Forum [Tamil Nadu]; and Touched by TB, a national coalition of people affected by TB in India.
The ministry released information about stocks of various drugs available in Maharashtra and at the national level, claiming that they would last six months.
However, a calculation done by a civil society group member, Vaishnavi Jayakumar, using the data from the tenders available online, shows that one drug is available just for a month, another one for less than one month, and so on and so forth. Jayakumar looked at the tenders to understand the yearly requirement of these drugs and thus deduced the monthly requirement. The tenders are available on the Central Medical Services Society (CMSS)’s website. CMSS is a government of India undertaking that is tasked with procuring drugs.
“Our calculation clearly shows that not one drug’s stock will last for six months. It is less than three for most of them – and for some, it is even less than one month,” Jayakumar told The Wire. She added, “To be in a comfortable position, the government knows that the states must have a stock for three months at the very least.”
The health ministry’s statement said that data on drug availability was sourced from the Nikhsay Aushadhi digital platform for TB patients. The civil society groups said that there was no way to cross-check the Nikhsay Aushadhi figures and asked if the government’s claims were true, why then was there such a critical stockout situation across the country.
“It is disheartening to see the recent communication from the MoHFW, which seems to disregard the very real struggles and suffering endured by the people on the ground. Such a disconnect between the statement by the MoHFW and the lived experiences of TB patients is concerning and counterproductive to our achieving the Honorable Prime Minister’s goal of eliminating TB by 2025,” the statement concludes.