TB patients cautioned vs self-medication

Tuberculosis patients should not to resort to self-medication, otherwise they risk developing resistance to anti-TB drugs.

This was stressed by Jose Ibarra Angeles, communications adviser of the Philippine Tuberculosis Initiatives for the Private Sector (PhilTIPS), who added that TB carriers should consult proper health authorities in treating their illness and thus ensure their early recovery.

"Self-medication will not do good to TB patients. There are certain regimens that must be followed strictly. Otherwise, the treatment will be useless and the patient may only develop multiple drug resistance," Angeles said in a phone interview.

PhilTIPS is a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to control the respiratory disease.

Citing an estimate of the Department of Health (DOH), Angeles said there are 250,000 new TB cases a year in the Philippines, nearly half of whom don’t consult doctors for treatment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that there are three drug-resistant TB cases for every 100,000 population in the world.

"Many TB patients don’t want to see a doctor because of the stigma that the disease brings and because of poverty. But this should not be the case if we want TB to be controlled," Angeles said.

PhilTIPS warned that drug-resistant TB is more expensive and harder to treat.

The worldwide standard care for TB now is called Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS), which requires a straight six-month treatment that must be strictly followed. Any interruption in DOTS will render the whole process useless and the patients will have to go back to the first step of the medication.

Angeles said DOTS only costs between P3,000 and P7,000. "That’s if you are under private care. At times, DOTS drugs are also available in government clinics or hospitals," he said.

When a TB patient becomes resistant to drugs, Angeles said he needs a higher dose of medication that might cost as much as P200,000.

"It may also take two years to cure drug-resistant TB and sometimes, it might no longer be curable at all. So what we want is for all TB patients to follow the treatment religiously," he said.