TUBERCULOSIS: Phillipines: Multi-drug resistance a threat to fight vs tuberculosis

August 15, 2010, CEBU CITY – Amid the country's high prevalence rate of tuberculosis (TB), the biggest threat to the health department's battle against the disease is multi-drug resistance, according to the Department of Health (DoH) in Region 7.
DoH-7 Head of the Communicable Disease Section Dr. Enrique Sancho said the government provides free medicines for TB patents with complete drug regimen from six to eight months which are available in health centers.
But when a TB patient becomes drug-resistant to the various medicines provided by the government, then the case is categorized as “multi drug-resistant' tuberculosis” (MDRTB), Sancho said.
"The biggest threat to the National Tuberculosis Program is the MDRTB as the government does not provide medicines for such cases," according to Sancho. Non-compliance to the medications is the primary factor that leads a person with regular TB to become a case of MDRTB, Sancho disclosed.
A TB patient should religiously take his drugs as indicated while the whole medication treatment course is between six to eight months. When a patient stops taking his medications because he or she already feels okay then chances are very high that such patient would become a case of MDRTB, according to Sancho.
"Four percent of regular TB cases become MDRTB and complete treatment duration for these patients require 18-24 months with multitude of drugs given that are more expensive and not part of the government's free anti-TB medicines," Sancho said.
Sancho said that in severe cases, MDRTB cases progressed to extensive drug-resistant TB (EDRTB) where five percent of MDRTB cases become EDRTB while the most terrifying thing to happen is when the patient becomes a total drug-resistant TB case.
In Cebu, a treatment center for MDRTB called the Programmatic Management for Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (PMDT)-Treatment Center of the South provides free medicines for MDRTB patients.
Dr. Sharon Azenith Laurel, clinic physician of the PMDT- Treatment Center said their facility is the first-ever treatment center for TB outside of Metro Manila that caters to MDRTB. Previously, only the Lung Center of the Philippines in Manila caters to MDRTB, this is stated.
"The medicines for MDRTB cases are being funded by the Global Fund, an international NGO, which is very expensive with an average of P200T per patient for the complete duration of the treatment between 18 to 24 months," Laurel declared. Laurel said that currently, they have 53 patients.
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/272498/doh7-multidrug-resistance-a-threat-fight-vs-tuberculosis