Zarir Udwadia (born 1960) is an

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n pulmonologist and researcher. His work on drug resistant

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

has led to improvements in India's National Tuberculosis Control Programme. Udwadia was the only Indian invited by the WHO to be part of the TB ‘Guidelines Group’, which formulated the 4th edition of the TB Guidelines, published in 2010. He was also the only doctor to be named among India's best strategists.

Professional life

Udwadia is a graduate of the

Grant Medical College The Grant Government Medical College, Mumbai, is a public medical college, affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. Founded in 1845, it is one of the oldest institutions teaching medicine in South Asia. Its clinical affil ...

, Mumbai. He spent five years training in the UK at various centres, including Brompton Hospital, London. He practices at the P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre and the

Breach Candy Hospital Breach Candy Hospital is a private hospital located in Mumbai, India. It is located in the Breach Candy area of South Mumbai. It is well known for the rich and famous patients that have been in the hospital. History It was established in ...

, in Mumbai. Approximately 8,000 patients pass through his OPD annually. Udwadia established a Chest Medicine Department at the Hinduja Hospital in 1992, and the city’s first Sleep Laboratory in 1994. He serves on the editorial board of

Thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

, a respiratory medicine journal, and has authored over 140 publications.

Drug-Resistant tuberculosis

Udwadia runs a free weekly TB clinic at the

Hinduja Hospital The P. D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre is a multi-specialty, tertiary-care hospital in Mumbai, India. It was founded in 1951 by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, in collaboration with the Massachusetts General Hospital, the ...

, which he set up in 1992, on his return to India, after his training in the UK. It is the busiest outpatient clinic at the Hinduja hospital, with patients traveling from many parts of the country, and some lining up overnight, to be seen by him. In December 2011, Udwadia documented twelve cases of what he called totally drug-resistant ('TDR') TB, a strain of the disease that seemed to show resistance to all known treatments. There were only two other episodes of TDR-TB reported in the world before this- in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in 2009, and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 2007. Along with his colleagues at the Hinduja Hospital, he published a letter describing four of these cases in the journal '' Clinical Infectious Diseases.'' The journal letter prompted extensive media attention. Government officials publicly denied the issue, accused him of wrongly spreading panic, and a Mumbai health official seized patient samples from his laboratory. While the WHO eventually said that defining resistance beyond XDR-TB was not recommended, Udwadia's research drew the attention of the medical community to the growing epidemic of drug-resistant TB. The coordinator of the WHO's STOP TB department called his findings a wake up call. His research eventually led to improvements in the way TB is managed in India, and elsewhere, and forced the government to make changes to the state-run TB control initiative, or the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. The government increased the budget for the program, and dispatched rapid GeneXpert machines, which can conduct highly sensitive molecular diagnostic testing. He continues to be an outspoken critic of the government's failures to address the TB problem, and a vocal advocate for newer diagnosis and treatment for TB patients.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Udwadia, Zarir 1960 births Indian pulmonologists Parsi people Living people