This is particularly important given the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains of the disease.
They then develop resistance to several medications, thus infecting their communities with multi-drug resistant strains of TB.
Almost half of patients with the multi-drug resistant form of the disease die.
Partially drug-resistant TB can now found in countries across the world, and "multi-drug resistant" strains affect countries such as Russia and China.
The report also highlighted problems treating people with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.
When doctors carried out throat swabs from 82 other children at the centre, they found that ten were carrying the same multi-drug resistant strain of bacteria found in the two ill children.
About one quarter of previously untreated TB patients were infected with the multi-drug-resistant TB.
WSJ: Tuberculosis Strain in Mumbai Doesn't Respond to Main Treatment
In a 2003 study, the researchers reported 30% of their newly diagnosed patients were multi-drug-resistant.
WSJ: Tuberculosis Strain in Mumbai Doesn't Respond to Main Treatment
This included a large number of newly diagnosed patients, 13% of whom were found to be multi-drug-resistant, the study said.
WSJ: Tuberculosis Strain in Mumbai Doesn't Respond to Main Treatment
India is addressing the issue of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis with a plan endorsed by international experts, including the WHO, during the latest monitoring mission in August.
WSJ: The WHO Supports India's Fight Against MDR-TB �� Letters to the Editor
Now Novartis is launching its own research institute, in Singapore, to discover drugs for dengue fever and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis especially nasty in the poorer bits of Asia and Africa.
ECONOMIST: Drug firms are starting to tackle tropical diseases
In Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 200 million people, a study published in 2008 in the Indian Journal of Medical Research showed about 20% of TB patients were multi-drug-resistant.
WSJ: Tuberculosis Strain in Mumbai Doesn't Respond to Main Treatment
The WHO's latest estimate that about 2.1% of previously untreated and 15% of previously treated TB patients in India are multi-drug-resistant is based on surveys done by just a few Indian states, he said.
WSJ: Tuberculosis Strain in Mumbai Doesn't Respond to Main Treatment
Through Partners in Health, this approach successfully checked multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis in Peru.
In some small studies in India, a big portion of untreated or newly diagnosed patients were multi-drug-resistant, meaning they had picked up resistant forms of the disease.
WSJ: Tuberculosis Strain in Mumbai Doesn't Respond to Main Treatment
When China released its first nationwide survey this year, it found 5.7% of that country's newly diagnosed TB patients were multi-drug-resistant, according to a study published this year in the New England Journal of Medicine.
WSJ: Tuberculosis Strain in Mumbai Doesn't Respond to Main Treatment
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