Prime News Ghana

‘Deadly’ XDR Tuberculosis kills one in Ghana

By Clement Edward Kumsah
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A ‘deadly’ XDR Tuberculosis has killed one person in Ghana, the Ghana Health Service has confirmed.

According to the Ghana Health Service, XDR Tuberculosis is an extensively drug-resistant type of Tuberculosis.

The infrequent type of Tuberculosis known as XDR Tuberculosis does not respond to standard treatment with first-line anti-TB drugs and can take up to two years or more to treat with drugs that are less potent, more toxic and much more expensive.

Speaking at a media sensitization programme on Tuberculosis on Friday, March 16, 2018, Dr. Frank Bonsu, Manager of the TB Control Programme at the Ghana Health Service, called for a concerted effort to fight the emerging threat.

“We need leaders to fight the menace which is coming to Ghana, the drug-resistant TB, I am not proud to announce to you that Ghana has reported its first case of XDR TB, the TB is resistance to all known treatment,” he said.

He added that, attention needs to be paid to XDR TB before it becomes an epidemic.

“If we don’t contain and this breaks down as an epidemic we are finished as a country, “he said.

He said as a preventive exercise, relative and neighbours of the deceased will be examined to make sure they have not been affected, whiles Ghanaians would be educated on world TB day on March 24, 2018, about the disease.

Dr Frank Bonsu admitted that the disease had remained a major public health concern globally as current effort to reach, treat and cure everyone who got ill with the disease had not been sufficient though it is curable.

He continued that in 2014, 9.6 million people fell ill with Tuberculosis, and of this figure, 1.2 million of them also had HIV, ranking Tuberculosis alongside HIV and AIDS as the leading cause of death worldwide.

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