New cases of Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) and Extreme Drug Resistant (XDR) Tuberculosis are diagnosed monthly in Grahamstown. This means there are lots of undiagnosed cases in the Grahamstown community.
New cases of Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) and Extreme Drug Resistant (XDR) Tuberculosis are diagnosed monthly in Grahamstown. This means there are lots of undiagnosed cases in the Grahamstown community.
The Grahamstown Hospice has revealed in their newsletter that during the course of the year they treated 491 TB patients. They expressed concern about a dramatic increase in the number of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extremely drug resistant (XDR) TB patients.
Until a few years ago, such cases were extremely rare in this area, Hospice says. Hospice Clinical Manager Trish Gillies told Grocott's Mail this week that Hospice gets funding from the Department of Health. Because of this they are able to provide home-based care to TB patients.
"The patients still belong to the Department of Health, but we also do screening for family members who live with MDR or XDR patients.
"When a patient is referred to Hospice we do screening and counselling to household members," said Gillies. According to the newsletter, in the past year, Hospice treated 54 MDR TB patients and eight XDR TB patients.
"MDR cases are rising and it is a concern: this is a communicable disease and there are non-adherent patients which makes them more resistant to the treatment," Gillies said.
"We have had a lot of people who have never had TB before being diagnosed with MDR TB," she said. Gillies said there are new cases diagnosed monthly in Grahamstown. She said a social worker from the TB facilities or from Hospice does outreach in the community, especially to the households that have TB patients.
"They need to be told about the open-window policy and that the person must use their own cutlery," Gillies said. "It also depends, because some [have larger living areas]and some people live in very small areas," Gillies said. The treatment for drug-resistant TB is extremely costly and time consuming, requiring daily injections, according the newsletter.
The Hospice staff also trace household members and people with whom the patient has been in contact, in order to screen them for TB. Patients remain infectious until they have completed two weeks of treatment and so if MDR and XDR TB are detected early it can be prevented from spreading.
