adminDouglas Chiteka Herald Reporter
The number of people diagnosed with drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) continues to increase with 300 cases recorded last year, a senior health official has said. This was revealed by the deputy director of AIDS and TB in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Charles Sandy at a health talk organised by the Health Journalist Association of Zimbabwe in conjunction with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Harare last week.
Dr Sandy attributed the increase in DR-TB cases to better detection of cases through the use of the new “gene expert” machine.
“We are not worried much about the increase. The problem is that we were using the old technique which would take something like four months before the results were made available,” he said.
He said with assistance from partners such as the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the National Aids Council, MSF and others, about 53 gene expert machines had since been installed at high-volume health institutions.
He said this year, Government would try to buy 38 more machines.
Previously, it would take up to four months to detect drug resistant TB. Diagnosis was done at one centre in Bulawayo.
Dr Sandy said Government now has giving second-line drugs for treatment of DR-TB.
Dr Sandy urged TB patients to adhere to their treatment to reduce chances of contracting DR-TB, which he said was expensive and complicated to manage.
It costs about US$5 000 to treat DR-TB over a two-year period, in contrast to about US$30 cost of treating TB over six months.
Zimbabwe is one of 22 high TB-burdened countries in the world and the disease is among the top 10 causes of adult illness and death.
Online Reporter