Themis Medicare Ltd, the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company, has announced the launch of a new range of refreshed medicines for TB among HIV/AIDS patients. The WHO-recognised company has come out with formulations with a combination of Rifampicin, Isonizaid, Pyrazinamide, Ethambutol (either all or some of them).

According to Dr K C Mohanty, director of Themis, an HIV infected person was 30 times more prone to develop TB than a non-HIV person. In HIV, 85 per cent of the patients would die due to TB. Alarmed by this, WHO had declared a global emergency on TB control.

“TB and HIV are on the rise. TB is an airborne disease and no one can say that a person is safe from TB because it spreads in air. Everyone, either rich or poor, breathes the same air,” Dr Mohanty said.

Themis, in association with the Indian Medical Association (IMA), has decided to conduct awareness campaigns and symposia on TB and HIV in all the 23 district headquarters and the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh. They were also planning CME programmes for practising medical professionals in modern medicine for updating the knowledge and treatment of TB, especially in complicated TB associated with HIV / AIDS.

The company had organised a certificate course at Medi Citi Hospitals on Monday on the diagnosis of tuberculosis, chemotherapy, management of complications in HIV-related tuberculosis. The course was conducted by Dr Mohanty and the participants were addressed by Dr Salil Bendary from Mumbai, Dr R Vijayakumar of Medi Citi and Dr M V Ranga Reddy, president, IMA.

Themis Medicare had taken long strides in combating TB right from 1973 since introducing the anti-TB drug Themibutol. On the completion of 30 years of the launching of Themibutol and 25 years of the launching of another drug, Isonizaid, the company has formed the Themis Medical Education Cell to conduct CME programmes, symposia and certificate courses all over the country. The awareness programme was first launched in Hyderabad on Monday.