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Govt. programme failures worsen multi-drug resistant TB – Dr. Anthony
Government has failed to explain why there is an increase in the incidence of the multi-drug resistant (MDR) strain of tuberculosis (TB).
This is according to Opposition Member of Parliament, Dr. Frank Anthony, who sought to lay blame at the feet of Government during day two of the 2019 Budget debate in the National Assembly yesterday.
Dr. Quacy Grant, Mr Oneil Atkins and Dr. Eshwar Ghanshiam proving that they have TB medication in stock.
“Experts will tell you that multidrug resistance often develops because of programme failures, such as stock-outs of critical drugs, inadequate monitoring, poor compliance and patients’ poverty,” Dr. Anthony stated.
He said Government members sought to placate the debate by stating that some functionaries from the Ministry have stated publicly, that there are no shortages of drugs.
According to Dr. Anthony, what Government has failed to state is when the drugs arrived from the Global TB facility.
“Distorting the truth is good for propaganda, but critical shortages of drugs will kill people. You should stop playing with peoples’ lives,” Dr. Anthony noted.
There was a recent shortage of Ethionamide, part of the cocktail of drugs used to treat those special TB patients.
Director of Pharmacy, Oneil Atkins, on Friday said there is no need to panic following the shortage of one of four medications used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients.
Emergency supplies of this key drug arrived in Guyana late last week and were distributed to patients, Dr. Jeetendra Mohanlall, Manager of the Global Drug Facility Programme, confirmed Friday.
Explaining the recent shortage, Dr. Mohanlall said the National TB Programme is pushing for quality second line medication for Guyana’s TB drug-resistant patients. Due to some global challenges the delivery was delayed. The programme had to resort to emergency supplies, which arrived beyond the expected time of delivery.
The four-second line drugs used to treat these drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) patients are sourced from South Korea, Japan, India and Cyprus, through the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Dr. Mohanlall said.
On HIV, Dr. Anthony took note that the incidence of the disease appears to be rising, with the 20 to 29 age cohort showing the highest incidence – 32 percent of all newly reported cases in 2017.
“This unwelcome development should be quickly corrected, by targetted programmes,” Dr. Anthony shared.
He further noted that the overall adult prevalence rate is 1.7. However, these rates are much higher among sex workers, at 6.1 percent, men who have sex with men, 4.9 percent; prisoners 1.72 percent and transgender persons 8.4 percent.
Dr. Anthony said that for high-risk population groups, one of the most effective prevention methods is Prevention Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). In the countries where it was introduced, he said it has significantly reduced the incidence of HIV.
“Guyana lags behind the rest of the world. I call on the government to immediately introduce PrEP in Guyana,” Dr. Anthony said.
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