Regime to track TB patient's medication through cellphones

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad district

tuberculosis

(TB) office will launch a new drug regime, titled 99 DOTS, which will make use of cellphones to remind patients to take the medicine.

The regime, aimed at newly diagnosed TB and

human Immunodeficiency Virus

(HIV) patients, will be launched within the next couple of days in the district.

Under the programme, patients will be required to give a missed call to the number generated after dispensing pills. Once this is done, they will start receiving SMSs and call alerts reminding them to take medication.

District TB officer

Vivek Khatgaonkar

said, “99DOTS is a new model of delivering tuberculosis medications that utilizes basic cellphones and augmented blister packaging to provide real-time monitoring of medication without the burden of direct observation.”

The patients diagnosed with TB will be registered in the software, developed for the new regime, along with two cellphone numbers. They will be provided a unique identification number. “The patients will be provided the strip of pills based on their weight-band, including 28 days dose to the

Anti Retro viral Therapy

(ART) centres, which will be made available at district level. Patients suffering from

Multi Drug Resistant

(MDR) and Extensively Drug Resistant (XDR) are not covered under this programme,” he added.

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