Bureaucratic Delays Keep India’s Vulnerable From Receiving Life-Saving TB Treatment

Wall Street Journal: Inside India: The Deadly Effects of Red Tape
Getta Anand, senior writer for the Wall Street Journal based in Mumbai

“Red tape and over-regulation can kill. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi fights to loosen bureaucrats’ stifling grip on the economy, he also needs to ease Indians’ access to life-saving drugs. India for years has struggled to contain an epidemic of tuberculosis — especially the drug-resistant strains of this deadly and contagious disease. … We need to remove the bureaucratic hurdles that keep India’s most vulnerable from getting the care they need. ‘For infectious diseases where people are dying and existing treatment options are intolerable and failing, faster action rather than more delays are what’s needed,’ says Soumya Swaminathan, director of the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis” (1/21).

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