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TB PREVENTION TREATMENT FOR HIV+ PATIENTS

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MBABANE – HIV positive patients will now have to also take TB prevention treatment.

This follows that government has reintroduced the TB Prevention Treatment to HIV positive patients effective immediately.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), due to their weakened immune system, people living with HIV are less able to fight tubercolosis (TB) infection and are more likely to develop active TB, which can be deadly and can spread to others. 

On their webpage, the WHO stated that in some communities, up to 80 per cent of people with TB tested positive for HIV. For this reason, it stated that taking medicine containing the anti-TB drug isoniazid was a simple and cost-effective measure that prevented the TB bacteria from becoming active if it was present. 

Reasons 

Known as Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT), the treatment approach is not new, but for a variety of reasons, it is underused. The WHO highlighted that only 85 000 or 0.2 per cent of all people living with HIV received isoniazid for TB prevention in 2009.  

According to Deputy Director of Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr Velephi Okello, the treatment was once introduced in 2010 but there were challenges in that there was poor uptake by HIV positive patients. 

“This is because people are not forced to take it. In some cases, people had stopped taking the pill while others refused it from the onset,” the deputy director said in an interview yesterday.

She added that government was encouraging people who had tested positive for HIV to take the medication because there had been a high success rate in some countries which had implemented the compulsory TB prevention treatment.  

Dr Okello said research had shown that if HIV positive patients were given the TB pill on a regular basis, it reduced the chances of contracting the airborne disease which may lead to death. 

She said the pill was taken on a daily basis for six months. However, she highlighted that after some time, the patient stopped taking it. 

She mentioned that what killed most HIV patients was TB since once they contracted it, their immune system would become severely compromised. Dr Okello said if a patient who had tested positive for HIV started taking the TB prevention pill, the patient could not get very sick when he or she was exposed to someone who had TB.

She mentioned that the reason the pill was essential was because TB was still rife in the kingdom. She further stated that the ministry was not forcing people to take the pill against their will. Instead, she said the pills were highly recommended and prescribed to patients. Dr Okello pointed out that patients were first told about the treatment before they were administered to it.

However, the deputy director highlighted that some patients had in the past complained about side effects after taking the pill. She said some complained that it was a burden since it added to the pills they were already taking. 

Embraced 

Meanwhile, HIV Activist Vusi Matsebula embraced the treatment. 

“We support this, especially because TB is one of the illnesses that go hand-in-hand with HIV. Six out of 10 people living with HIV are often found to have TB,” Matsebula said.

He elaborated that HIV positive people were most prone to have TB and as a result, the TB prevention treatment was the right move. The activist said they appreciated the ministry because prevention was better than cure. 

“The ministry is urging us not to wait until our bodies are vulnerable to diseases before we start taking the pill. So it is better to prevent it before the immune system is compromised,” Matsebula said.

He further urged other people living with HIV to heed the Health Ministry’s call to avoid scenarios that may lead to their health being compromised.  



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