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Health officials prepare for deadly TB outbreak
<SMALL>By Nwabisa Nofemele</SMALL>
HEALTH officials in Nelson Mandela Bay fear an outbreak of a new and deadly TB strain after six Motherwell residents were diagnosed with the multi drug-resistant (MDR) illness.
At least 20 people in the city have been identified by the Medical Research Council as having defaulted on their MDR TB treatment.
Now in anticipation of a serious outbreak, the provincial health department has prepared special isolation wards in six hospitals across the province should any of the drugresistant ? also known as XDR ? TB cases be reported.
Officials confirmed that of the 20 patients identified as not taking their MDR medication at least 14 had since died, but the health department could not confirm if the cause was directly linked to XDR TB.
The patients had repeatedly defaulted on their first-line drugs ? the standard treatment for TB carriers.
They then developed MDR TB and defaulted again on the treatment.
According to PE Hospital complex chief executive officer, Lulamile JamJam, the six are on second-line drugs, which are a combination of drugs designed to fight resistant TB.
After four weeks, they will be tested and if they have not reacted to the treatment, it could be confirmed that they have XDR TB.
XDR TB is resistant to the first-line of TB drugs, and also to at least three of the second-line TB drugs.
If they are found to have XDR TB, Jam-Jam said the patients would be placed in an isolation ward at Jose Pearson TB Hospital in Port Elizabeth while more tests would be run in an attempt to find a combination of drugs to kill the strain.
?What is important to note is that when a TB patient is on treatment ? regardless of resistant TB or not ? they are non infectious to other people,? Jam-Jam said.
?TB is airborne so it is passed around through sneezing and coughing, but the person who has a resistant TB does not pose a greater risk to people if he or she is responding to second- line drugs.?
Jam-Jam could not provide details on how the six patients were responding to the treatment.
He said it was unusual for people to be put on second-line drugs and this was a serious condition.
?In this region, for the past 15 years, we would get about two people a year who needed to be put on second-line drugs,? Jam-Jam said.
Health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the department was conducting tests on TB patients and had prepared isolation wards in six hospitals in the province, should XDR TB cases be reported.
He said XDR TB drugs were available in this country but national government was still to give the go-ahead for them to be reproduced and distributed.
The new TB strain was first detected in KwaZulu Natal a few months ago, and has reportedly killed 74 people there so far.
Globally, this strain has also been reported in several other countries, including the US and Latvia, which have 4% and 19% prevalence rates respectively.
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n01_23102006.htm
<SMALL>By Nwabisa Nofemele</SMALL>
HEALTH officials in Nelson Mandela Bay fear an outbreak of a new and deadly TB strain after six Motherwell residents were diagnosed with the multi drug-resistant (MDR) illness.
At least 20 people in the city have been identified by the Medical Research Council as having defaulted on their MDR TB treatment.
Now in anticipation of a serious outbreak, the provincial health department has prepared special isolation wards in six hospitals across the province should any of the drugresistant ? also known as XDR ? TB cases be reported.
Officials confirmed that of the 20 patients identified as not taking their MDR medication at least 14 had since died, but the health department could not confirm if the cause was directly linked to XDR TB.
The patients had repeatedly defaulted on their first-line drugs ? the standard treatment for TB carriers.
They then developed MDR TB and defaulted again on the treatment.
According to PE Hospital complex chief executive officer, Lulamile JamJam, the six are on second-line drugs, which are a combination of drugs designed to fight resistant TB.
After four weeks, they will be tested and if they have not reacted to the treatment, it could be confirmed that they have XDR TB.
XDR TB is resistant to the first-line of TB drugs, and also to at least three of the second-line TB drugs.
If they are found to have XDR TB, Jam-Jam said the patients would be placed in an isolation ward at Jose Pearson TB Hospital in Port Elizabeth while more tests would be run in an attempt to find a combination of drugs to kill the strain.
?What is important to note is that when a TB patient is on treatment ? regardless of resistant TB or not ? they are non infectious to other people,? Jam-Jam said.
?TB is airborne so it is passed around through sneezing and coughing, but the person who has a resistant TB does not pose a greater risk to people if he or she is responding to second- line drugs.?
Jam-Jam could not provide details on how the six patients were responding to the treatment.
He said it was unusual for people to be put on second-line drugs and this was a serious condition.
?In this region, for the past 15 years, we would get about two people a year who needed to be put on second-line drugs,? Jam-Jam said.
Health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the department was conducting tests on TB patients and had prepared isolation wards in six hospitals in the province, should XDR TB cases be reported.
He said XDR TB drugs were available in this country but national government was still to give the go-ahead for them to be reproduced and distributed.
The new TB strain was first detected in KwaZulu Natal a few months ago, and has reportedly killed 74 people there so far.
Globally, this strain has also been reported in several other countries, including the US and Latvia, which have 4% and 19% prevalence rates respectively.
http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n01_23102006.htm