Patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis have a high mortality rate.
(Baonghean) - Currently, drug-resistant tuberculosis is causing great difficulties in the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis in the community.
10% of patients die
Currently, in Nghe An, there are still many patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis who cannot be cured for many reasons such as the patient's health is too weak, the second-line tuberculosis drugs used to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis have many side effects, the strict treatment regimen requires regular testing and monitoring at medical facilities...
Many patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis could not be cured and gradually died. One of them was Mr. N. D. Q in Dien Chau district. Mr. Q's family said: "At first, Q. felt pain in his shoulder, then had difficulty breathing and chest pain. He was taken to the district hospital for examination and found out he had tuberculosis. He was treated for tuberculosis for a while but his health did not improve.
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| Testing for tuberculosis bacteria at Cua Lo Town Medical Center. Photo: Thanh Son |
The doctor then transferred him to the Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital, where he was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) contracted from a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patient. Because his body was allergic to tuberculosis drugs, his tolerance to the drugs was poor, making it difficult to take the drugs. His health was now very weak, and the doctor said that the possibility of curing the disease was very difficult.
| Every year, Nghe An discovers about 2,908 more tuberculosis patients, of which about 45 - 50 are multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients, the number of deaths from tuberculosis each year is nearly equivalent to 10% of the infected people. According to doctors of the national tuberculosis prevention and control program: Patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis have a high mortality rate, are difficult to treat and are on the rise. If treated properly, the cure rate in the group of non-drug resistant patients is up to 90%, but in the group of multi-drug resistant patients is 70%. In addition, there are also patients with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis, even with a drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment program, the disease cannot be cured. |
Early detection and active treatment are needed.
Doctor CKII Dau Minh Quang - Director of Nghe An Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital said, about the cause of drug-resistant tuberculosis: A course of tuberculosis treatment lasts at least 6 months. Tuberculosis drugs often cause many unpleasant side effects. This has caused many patients to not comply with the treatment regimen.
There are also some patients who, after taking the medicine for a period of time, feel healthy and have no symptoms, and think that they are cured, so they stop treatment without knowing that tuberculosis bacteria are very "tenacious". After a period of "hiding" and mutating, they will find a way to resist the tuberculosis drugs, and they will become active and cause disease again, resistant to the old tuberculosis drugs. In addition, there are also many patients who have drug-resistant tuberculosis from the beginning due to being infected with tuberculosis from a person who already has drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Currently, Nghe An still has many people with drug-resistant tuberculosis who have not been treated and these people are the source of spreading drug-resistant tuberculosis to other healthy people in the community. Detecting and treating drug-resistant tuberculosis patients is difficult because these patients are concentrated in remote communes, areas with difficult transportation. In addition, the effectiveness of propaganda and mobilization is not high, leading to limited community awareness in preventing and fighting tuberculosis.
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| Emergency care for a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patient at Nghe An Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital. Photo: Thanh Son |
Unmanaged multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients pose a high risk of continuing to spread multidrug-resistant tuberculosis to society. It is worth mentioning that even though they are provided with completely free medicine and travel expenses during treatment, people with tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis can still abandon treatment because the majority of them are poor and are the main breadwinners in their families. During the treatment of normal tuberculosis, which usually takes at least 6 months, and treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which takes at least 20 months, patients still have to earn money to support their families.
| Doctor Nguyen Viet Xuan - Deputy Director of Tan Ky District Medical Center admitted: "The work of detecting the source of tuberculosis infection and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients still faces many difficulties due to the stigma and self-stigma of tuberculosis patients in general. People are not well aware of the work of preventing and fighting tuberculosis when they hide their illness or do not treat it properly, increasing the risk to the community." |
Doctor CKII Dau Minh Quang said that early detection and active treatment are necessary and sufficient conditions for treating tuberculosis in general and drug-resistant tuberculosis in particular. Therefore, in addition to the efforts of patients and their families, sharing and support from the community are also needed. On the part of the State, it is necessary to maintain a good investment in the anti-tuberculosis network, the health sector needs to strengthen propaganda work so that people understand the disease, how to prevent and treat the disease, not discriminate against patients, and strengthen measures to diagnose and detect the disease early.
On the other hand, the Party Committee and the government of each locality need to consider tuberculosis prevention and control, and the care and protection of people's health as one of the important criteria for socio-economic development in order to have appropriate support and assistance; each individual in the community, regardless of their position or social status, needs to fully promote their own responsibilities to make practical contributions to disease prevention and control.
Thanh Son
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