TB Patients Advised to Take Medication (page 34)

HE National Tuberculosis (TB) Control Programme (NTP) has advised TB patients to complete their medication as directed, to avoid being drug resistant.
According to officials of the programme, it was dangerous for patients to skip taking their medicine since that could make the TB-causing bacteria to grow stronger to worsen the patients’ condition or cause death.
It explained that the TB bacteria (mycobacterium tuberculosis), which caused the disease died slowly and, therefore, required about six months continuous treatment to ensure the full recovery of an infected person.
These came out during a one-day advocacy workshop which was organised by NTP for journalists in Accra, as part of programmes to commemorate the World TB Day scheduled for Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region on March 24, on the theme: “I am stopping TB”.
The workshop was to equip the journalists to attach relevance to TB issues to put the disease on the national agenda and also encourage them (the journalists) to cover TB-related topics in a responsible manner.
Addressing the participants, the Programme Manager of NTP, Dr Frank Bonsu, stressed the need for scientists to engage in research to develop new diagnosis, drugs and vaccines to strengthen the fight against TB, adding that currently there was no vaccine for adults to combat the disease.
He also urged health workers to play an active role in information dissemination and education to help prevent and control the spread of the disease among communities.
According to NTP statistics, in every population of 100,000, 203 new cases are detected, adding that there were 90 new infections each year. It also pointed out that 50 per cent of those infected died, 25 per cent recovered, while 25 per cent remained infectious.
Dr Bonsu, therefore, called for the strategic involvement of all stakeholders in the fight against eliminating the disease.
The Programme Manager noted that TB control was no longer the preserve of a few health professionals but everybody in society.
He said TB was the leading cause of death especially among HIV/AIDS patients because they had weaker immune systems, adding that “out of every 100 TB patients, 14 are HIV patients”.
He said TB posed a serious threat to society, both socially and economically which called for a concerted effort on the part of government and society to stop the disease.
He entreated Ghanaians to quickly seek medical screening and care when they exhibited symptoms of TB.
He identified some of the symptoms as a bad cough which lasted longer than two weeks, pain in the chest, coughing up blood, fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite and sweating at night.
The Deputy Programme Manger of NTP, Dr Hanson Nortey said the disease was not hereditary nor a curse from the gods, and advised people to seek information from the right sources if in doubt.
He however called on government, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to join in the fight and elimination of TB from society.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the NTP, Mr Felix Afutu said TB was curable and treatment was free.
He said people could avoid TB if they ate healthy food, got enough sleep, kept their immune system healthy and avoided overcrowded and poorly ventilated rooms.
“The infection can also be contracted through close contact with infected persons who cough, sneeze or spit but sufferers should not be ostracised from society because the disease is curable”, he stated.