The Blind Men and the Elephant: India’s Tuberculosis epidemic

The seminar will discuss my observations about India’s tuberculosis epidemic, seen through the perspective of my training in infectious diseases and microbiology. I have spent the last year working with the National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis on a research project that aimed at using protoemic methods to identify drug-resistance in TB. I spent a month in Mumbai, at the P.D. Hinduja hospital with Dr Camilla Rodrigues and Dr Zarir Udwadia, both world authorities on the microbiology and clinical management, respectively, of MDR-TB. Lastly, I visted hospitals and laboratories in rural India to try to understand their challenges with the diagnosis and management of TB.