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UGANDA: TB DRUGS IN SHORT SUPPLY January 15, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) Uganda’s biggest public hospital, Mulago is facing a deficiency in supply of Tuberculosis TB drugs following the ban on release of Global Fund money to help in the fight against Aids, malaria and tuberculosis late last year-Daily Monitor in Kampala
Many TB patients are reported to be buying their own medicine while others have stopped taking the drugs altogether. TB patients take different drug combinations depending on the severity of their illness. Some combinations have been consistently available at Mulago, while other prescriptions have been out of stock for anywhere from a few days to a month.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial disease that affects the respiratory system. According to the World Health Organization, TB affects nine million new people and kills approximately two million people every year. Patients require at least six months treatment before they get cured.
The drug's shortage not only affects TB sufferers but the wider community since TB is an infectious airborne disease. “We can’t tell yet what the impact of the shortagewill be,†says Dr. Dr. Denis Rubahika, of Mulago TB ward. "We won't see it for a few months, but transmission could be high."
Public health officials say patients who stop taking drugs for a month or more could become resistant to the commonly used drugs and would require more expensive drugs. (Dr. Rubahika says resistant TB treatment costs about Shs10 million per patient.)
According to Dr.Rubahika, HIV positive patients and poor people -who live together in close quarters with poor ventilation-are the hardest hit by TB.