The Supreme Court on Monday gave the government nine months to replace the thrice-a-week dosage norm of tuberculosis drugs with a daily dosage regimen as recommended by WHO, to curb relapse and combat drug-resistance.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar directed the government to ensure that efforts are made so that the patients across the country are administered the new dosage regimen, and the drugs will be provided free of cost.

The Bench, while passing the directions, disposed of a PIL plea filed by doctor and activist Raman Kakkar seeking change in the protocol for treatment of TB. Mr. Kakkar termed the current dosage practice “unscientific” and “improper.” He said that the present TB protocol stipulated only an inadequate regime to cut costs, adding that it promoted relapses and generated drug-resistant strains.

He claimed that over 10% of TB patients suffered relapse compared with the global average of 3%, noting that the relapsed cases were harder to treat than first-time infections.

Kakkar warned that rather than eradicating TB, the government’s scheme is doing the very opposite – generating lethal, drug-resistant strains through high relapse. “We Indians are headed back to the pre-antibiotic era of our grandparents when TB used to be incurable,” his plea said.

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