TB patients spooked by Covid-19 crisis

Express unwillingness to register themselves citing fear of being admitted in coronavirus wards

PESHAWAR:

The registration process of the multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis (TB) patients has been severally hampered due to the Covid-19 emergency as most of the TB patients are afraid to get themselves registered.

Experts fear this would eventually result in a massive surge of multidrug-resistant TB in the province which will be much more difficult and expensive to control.

Official sources told The Express Tribune that in the first six months of this year only 61 patients have registered with the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

“In the past the registration of patients reached at least 200 individuals at LRH per annum but this had dropped to 61 this year. Patients are afraid that they would be declared Covid patients and hospitalized by force so they are reluctant to come to the hospital,” said an official of the LRH, adding that last year too they just registered 113 new patients.

“This poses a serious risk for the patients whose condition could deteriorate further in the absence of treatment and their TB could become even more drug-resistant. Besides, it could turn into a TB pandemic parallel to the Covid-19.

“This could endanger the lives of TB patients,” he said.

Physicians told The Express Tribune that most of the TB patients have a lurking fear that they would be admitted to the Covid wards that is why they are running away from the registration process.

“In the past, the number of TB relapse cases stood at approximately 150 which could now further increase,” said a doctor at LRH, adding that some of the TB patients had a Covid infection.

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“Doctors are finding it very, very difficult to do a follow-up of their TB patients. Doctors are searching for their patients in the far-flung areas of the province by sending teams after them which is an uphill task,” he said, adding that when these patients are finally traced, it emerges that the address given during registration is incorrect. “If we locate a patient and his address is also found to be correct, we are told that the patient has escaped after discovering that a team of doctors is after him.

It is worth noting here that the multidrug-resistant TB project at LRH was started in 2012 with the help of international donors and so far 1,500 patients have been registered under the project. Around 70% of patients have recovered successfully.

“There is a social support program too to help MDR TB patients as each patient is paid Rs1,600 per visit for food and an additional sum of Rs600 for transportation expenses,” he said, adding that the duration of the treatment has also increased from 18 months to 20 months.

“In the event of relapse, extensive drug resistance takes another 20 months to treat. The MDR is very expensive to treat as compared to the normal TB so this project was launched to provide free-of-cost treatment. Extensive drug resistance is even more expensive to cure and it is not possible for the poor people to afford it on their own,” he said, adding that a patient could transmit his disease to others.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2021.