Even as nearly 4,000 people in the city are detected with tuberculosis every year, the numbers of those also resistant to drugs has increased over the years. To tackle the increasing problem of multi drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the state government on World TB Day (March 24) has decided to set up Directly Observed Treatment- Short Course (DOTS) Plus centre at Aundh General hospital in Pune. This centre will cater to MDR-TB patients in western Maharashtra. "Presently, only Nagpur and Ahmedabad have these centers specifically to provide second line of treatment to MDR-TB patients,' said Dr S R Karad, Director, State Training and Demonstration Centre. The Central Government has selected Pune as the second important city in the state to start the DOTS Plus centre and a laboratory that will be eventually graded by the National Tuberculosis Institute in Bangalore. According to Dr Ashok Ladda, Joint Director, Maharashtra for the TB Control programme, there are 1-1.5 lakh patients under the DOTS treatment of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. While the state was the first in the country to get covered under the DOTS programme, the number of deaths has reduced over the years from 30 per cent to five -seven per cent. Those patients who do not take treatment regularly and are given a different regimen of drugs by private practitioners often fall prey to MDR-TB. Drug resistance is less than three per cent among new patients and over 10 per cent among re-treatment cases, said Karad. At the Aundh general hospital, two wards will be created - one for TB patients and the other for MDR-TB patients. "We have demanded a patient intake capacity of 50,' said Karad. The DOTS Plus centre at Nagpur is presently treating 24 MDR-TB patients on second line drugs. These drugs are very expensive, have to be taken for a period of three years and is provided by the government, he said. Meanwhile, the city TB control unit headed by Dr Dilip Jagtap has already started awareness campaigns leading up to World TB Day. The Indian Medical Association has joined hands with the TB Control programme to encourage more private practitioners to set up DOT centres. So far there are 615 private practitioners involved in the programme, said Jagtap.