Directly Observed Treatment Short-course : Tuberculosis Cure for All

Tuberculosis is a major public health problem world-wide and its control continues to elude the brightest minds and to challenge the human and economic resources of countries around the world. Unless urgent action is taken, more than 15 million people including more than 4 million in India will die from tuberculosis in the next decade. Tuberculosis can be cured in nearly all patients. Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) strategy is the management package that ensures effective diagnosis and treatment of infectious cases. On March 24, 1997, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation declared, “the DOTS strategy for TB control represents the most important public health breakthrough of the decade, in terms of lives which will be saveed”. DOTS which cures 8 out of 10 patients treated has now been implemented in more than 110 countries. The key strategy followed in the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in India is DOTS.