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Center for Drug-resistant Tuberculosis rises in Cebu

Written by anyajulia on 09 October 2008

BOHOLANO tuberculosis (TB) patients whose ailments have developed multiple-drug resistance (MDR), need not go to Manila for treatment, a newly established treatment center is now in the Visayas.

A “MDR-TB Treatment Center of the South” is now at the Eversley Compound in Cebu.

The center can now handle patients whose TB can not be treated by two of the most potent anti-TB drugs in health centers, says Dr. Ma Emilda D. Quelapio, Program Manager of the country’s Programmatic Management fop Drug-resistant Tuberculosis (PMDT).

The center now offers specialized services and complementing to that is Cebu Reference Laboratory, which is now undergoing renovation. When done, it can provide quality diagnostic services to patients in the region, the Boholana physician revealed.

MDR-TB happens when a patient prematurely stops his medications upon losing the symptoms, she explained.

“TB, when treated right is curable, but unlike other infections where a 7-day antibiotic regimen is enough, TB takes at least 6 months and four kinds of drugs,” she added.

“Because of the complicated treatment for TB, the best strategy is through supervised treatment ensuring that patients take all their medicines for the required duration, she said.

A World Health Organization-recommended strategy, the Directly Observed Therapy (DOTS) is a short-course “Tutok Gamutan”, is considered by the World Bank as one of the most cost-effective health interventions, as it ensures that a trained health worker literally watches a patient take his medicines during the course of treatment.

Sometime ago, patients who develop MDR-TB can only be treated following strict 18 months of monitoring in Manila or Quezon City, where the 5 MDR TB centers are set up, she continued.

According to medical practitioners, “not only is the treatment expensive because a patient needs to relocate, it also is not free from complications.”

But with these facilities in the Visayas, patients need not relocate to avail of the treatment regimen.

Then a gap in the country’s National TB Control Program (NTP), the initiative to treat MDR-TB started in 1999 with the private sector through Tropical Disease Foundation, under the leadership of Dr. Thelma Tupasi, the foundation’s Director, she explained.

Run from donations of private individuals, the Foundation’s Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis team finally gets relief with the help of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM).

The fund, put up by highly industrialized countries also allows the country’s health authorities to slowly integrate MDR-TB services into the NTP starting with the National Capital Region (NCR) in Manila to the regions.

TB, which nips a morbidity rate of 75 deaths annually still makes it the country’s 6th largest causes of death, health authorities said recently, underscoring the disease as a major health concern still. (rachiu/PIA)

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