India’s public health system has run out of life-saving tuberculosis medicine and critical testing kits for Aids patients.
Due to the shortages, two infectious disease control programmes have been affected, reports The Financial Times.
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It is believed health ministry officials failed to ensure orders for the supplies arrived on time.
An estimated 300,000 people die from tuberculosis every year in India and an estimated 2.4 million people live with HIV/Aids.
India previously committed to providing antiretroviral treatment to all Aids patients who needed it, with around 400,000 people currently receiving the life-saving medicines.
Delhi provides free treatment to all TB patients, approximately 1.5 of whom take a six-month course of first-line drugs every year.
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By GlobalDataAccording to The Financial Times, public hospitals and groups providing TB treatment with government-supplied drugs ran out months ago.
There is a concern that due to the shortages many poor Indians may drop out of treatment.
Delhi is said to have now placed an emergency order for paediatric TB medicines, which it hopes to receive by the end of the month.
India’s former top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Health K Sujatha Rao said to The Financial Times: "It’s very disturbing.
"It’s a major system failure and it’s not acceptable when infectious diseases are involved."
Image: An estimated 300,000 people die from tuberculosis every year in India. Photo: courtesy of Wikipedia.
