September 27 2010
Nation Public Health and Sanitation minister Beth Mugo during World TB Day in Kibera last year, accompanied by Dr Joseph Sitienei, the head of the National Leprosy and Tuberculosis Control Programme.
Kenya has 552 multi-drug resistant TB cases, with 170 on medication and 382 without proper medication
Treatment drugs are becoming weaker by the day. Such is the case with two types of tuberculosis, multi-drug resistant TB and extremely resistant TB, which are on the rise not only in the East Africa, but also globally.
The emergence of the deadly strain bacterial infection has failed to catch the international attention it deserves. The most lethal — extremely resistant TB — has garnered almost no attention worldwide since it emerged at the turn of the century.
It is only in 2007 that the world woke up, after Andrew Shepherd, the young Atlanta lawyer, flew to Europe two days after being diagnosed with multi-drug tuberculosis. The incident exposed how easy it was for the lethal disease to spread, and how difficult it is to control.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Spread%20of%20resistant%20tuberculosis%20fails%20to%20catch%20world%20attention%20/-/1056/1019204/-/10aq73p/-/
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