New TB Regime is more potent

Accra, March 16, GNA - Professor Adukwei Hesse, a Tuberculosis (TB) Advisory Consultant on Thursday said the new TB regimen was a more potent and cost effective method of curing the disease, as it presented a combination of the same old drugs in a single tablet to make drug administration easier.

He explained that the potency of the drug had also resulted in reducing the period of TB treatment from eight to six months, which was categorized into two months of intensive drug administration and four months of continuations treatment.
Prof. Hesse, who was addressing a workshop for resource persons of the public awareness campaigns during the World TB Day which falls on March 24, acknowledged the fact that TB detection in Ghana was very slow and often contributed to the numerous cases of drug resistance. He said TB was curable and free of charge and therefore urged the public to encourage persons with persistent cough for more than two weeks to go for the test and treatment to prevent further complications.
He explained that the new TB Regimen would provide a more flexible mode of drug administration, as patients would be entitled each to their own drug kits for the duration of the treatment. "This new regimen will not necessarily require a health professional for the supervision of daily treatment, because the injection component is replaced with an oral medication," he said. Prof. Hesse said the theme of the celebrations, which is "TB Anywhere is TB Everywhere," was aimed at creating the necessary awareness on the high cases of the disease in the country and also demystify and sensitize the public against stigmatization. "It is estimated that over 50 percent of the adult population in Ghana are infected or had been exposed to the TB germ, 10 percent would develop the disease if they do not seek any medical treatment, half would die, 25 percent would heal spontaneously and 25 percent would turn chronic execrators," he said.
He called on health institutions to keep records of the number of patients who reports with cases of coughs to help in data compilation on TB diseases in the country.
He also called for the strengthening of Community-Based Direct Observed Treatment (DOT) programmes and the involvement of all stakeholders to help bring down the number of cases and prevent new infections.
Dr Kwesi Addo, Head of Department of Bacteriology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, who spoke on Bovine TB, said two percent of patients most Fulani herdsmen had been diagnosed with pulmonary TB, while intestinal TB were often detected during post-mortem.
He mentioned the causative agents of bovine TB as cattle, sheep and goats, pigs, dogs and cats, horses, as well as many domestic and wild animals and said bovine TB mostly attacks the lungs and the intestines, which made diagnoses very difficult.
He cautioned the public against patronizing unpasteurized milk and other uncertified meat and poultry Dr Addo said the absence of absence of monitoring and implementation structures of byelaws on the importation, transfer and slaughter of animals was a poses great danger of infectious diseases. He attributed the failure to destroy contaminated animals to the absence of compensation policies in the country for farmers and said the situation posed great threat to the health of the people and prevent the Health Sector from achieving its goals.
Dr Addo mentioned other challenges as the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Trade among member countries, underreporting of TB cases and absence of frequent meat inspections as other challenges ensuring quality health care.
He advocated for a policy to allow the occasional screening of butchers, headsmen, khebab sellers as well as all commercial food vendors, strengthening of quarantine and restriction of transported animals from other countries and extensive vet nary and health education campaigns seminars.