Drug Resistant TB treatment expensive

The cost of treating killer diseases is not cheap. Treating Primary Tuberculosis costs K60 however to fully treat one Multi Drug Resistant TB patient may cost up to K60 000 in just 6 months.

This is from Dr. Pieter VanMaree of Burnet institute during a press conference held this week by the National Government through the National Department of Health and its partners.

Dr VanMaree said the treatment of multi drug resistant TB is expensive, takes a long time to administer and has a lot of negative effects on the patient and therefore the government must look into preventing and controlling this disease before it affects the whole country as it is an air borne disease.

In the meantime the Dr. Stenard Hiasihri who is in charge of the TB response unit in Daru Island, which is currently a TB hotspot in the country says the response to tackle TB in Daru is currently funded by outside donors and the K27 million approved by the National govt for this work has not been released yet.

Dr Hiasihri who also spoke last week to the Special Parliamentary Committee on Public Service Delivery was present at the conference and said the TB unit is however working tirelessly to address the issue with the available resources and staffing however to fully combat TB is beyond the capability of the local hospital and he called on the government to release funds quickly as this is an emergency.