Challenging experience

By SALLY TIWARI
DUBA is just five years old.
His frail body and solemn eyes seem overwhelmed by the disease that is affecting him.
Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) commonly occurs as a result of poor treatment compliance and case management in regular TB cases.
When a patient does not take treatment every day as required, the TB germs learn to quickly adapt to the drugs and become totally resistant to some or all of the main drugs used to treat TB.
This is a major health concern because MDR-TB is spread just like regular TB – through the air every time an infected person coughs, sneezes or even talks.
That means that if a person has MDR-TB they can easily spread this strain to people who have never been infected before.
Unfortunately for Duba, he was unlucky enough to breath in TB germs that were already resistant to most of the normal drugs used to treat the disease.
He is now taking more than seven tablets a day and undergoing daily injections.
Each of these has to be dissolved and swallowed with water since he is so young.
These powerful drugs should give him strength and allow him to gain weight again quickly.
However for MDR-TB patients the road to recovery and ‘cure’ is not an easy one.
MIn PNG MDR-TB is unfortunately on the rise, however the National Department of Health with the assistance of development partners are already doing a great deal to control the spread of TB and MDR-TB.
At the moment most of the MDR-TB cases are in NCD and along the South Fly Coast of Western.
However cases have been identified in other areas and efforts are being made to focus on MDR-TB prevention.
Prevention in this case means ensuring that everyone is aware of TB symptoms and that all ‘regular TB patients’ take all of their medication under the supervision of a treatment supporter until they can be safely diagnosed as cured.
This is internationally recognised as the best way to stop both TB and MDR-TB.