There is an urgent need to educate healthcare providers about proper tuberculosis management in particular context of mild to severe side-effects of anti-TB drugs, it was pointed out during a seminar held on Wednesday.
The event, organised by the Chest Department of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), provided an opportunity to not only acknowledge headway made in the country vis-a-vis decline in TB-induced morbidity but also the lethal consequences due to reckless administration of the otherwise lifesaving anti-TB drugs.
Doctors and postgraduate students attending the seminar were cautioned that anti-TB drugs can lead to kidney- and liver-related complications, skins conditions and arthritis.
The scenario hence demanded optimum and careful supervision of the patients prescribed with the medication.
Dr Nausheen Saifullah Baig, discussing the management of side-effects of anti-TB therapy advised her colleagues that the patients must be well informed about the possible side-effects of the medicines besides ensuring strict and regular vigil on patients being put on anti-TB drugs.
Dr Saifullah Baig, assistant professor at the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, referred to the issue of drug resistant TB caused due to irrational medication and also because of poor compliance to required drug therapy.
He said the treatment of multi-disease resistant (MDR) TB is difficult and expensive while there are very few centres having regular supply of expensive MDR TB drugs to treat the condition.
“Proper drug compliance and availability of good quality of TB drugs is essential to prevent MDR TB,” he added.
Prof Shaheena Qayyum, in-charge research wing at Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, DUHS, drew attention towards the latent TB infection (LTBI) that constitutes 90 percent of all cases of the disease.
The LTBI was defined as a condition when a person is infected with Mycobacterium Tuberculosis but may not have active TB disease.
She said in a scenario when in every single second a person is infected with the bacteria and five to eight percent of them develop TB, it would be important to ensure that all close contacts of active TB patients are regularly screened.
“This strategy is prerequisite to achieve millennium development goals to reduce TB prevalence rate as well as TB induced death rates by 2015 and eliminate TB by 2050,” she added.
Dr Shaheena Qayyum said that as the number of notified TB cases is still very low in the country therefore have to increase the number of diagnostic facilities and also strengthen identification of TB suspects and also intensify case findings.
Prof Nadeem Rizvi, head of the Chest Department, JPMC, hinted towards the lack of public confidence in healthcare facilities functional in rural and less developed areas with majority of TB patients landing at tertiary care hospitals.
“It is our collective responsibility to assist the patients and restore their confidence so as to avail of diagnostic and free medication facilities provided by national and provincial TB control programs in the country,” he added.
Dr Amanullah Ansari, technical expert at the Sindh TB Control Programme, discussed in detail the revised guidelines for diagnosis and management of TB.
