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Health specialists move in to help chronic TB case

Health specialists move in to help chronic TB case
George Chege, a TB Patient. PHOTO/PRINT
The Ministry of Health has swiftly moved to address a stubborn TB case after People Daily highlighted George Chege’s (left) eight-year journey seeking treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB).

Specialists have already termed Chege’s case unusual, even as the patient who hails from Ndaragweti village in Sipiri, Laikipia County, is in search of answers to have the problem solved.

“I want to live a normal life like other Kenyans,” Chege told People Daily during an interview recently.

The National TB Programme in the ministry has taken up the matter, and is making an arrangement for two medical interventions for the patient according to a source.
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“We have agreed on a few things we need to do. One, is to refer the patient for further check-up at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, and two, he will be seen next month at the National TB Program’s laboratory,” said the source who requested not to be directly quoted for protocol issues.

Again, jointly, the Ministry and Laikipia County government are planning to carry out a mass screening exercise for the residents of Ndaragweti village after it emerged that it could be hosting an unchecked TB situation.

Chege revealed that a sizable number of his peers back in the village were battling the disease, and that he knew some of them.
“I know more than 10 people who are currently taking TB drugs, and each of them knows one or two more neighbours, treating the same disease,” he said in what’s likely to raise alarm, there could be an unchecked spread of the disease.

Other conditions

And perhaps this explains why doctors commenting on Chege’s TB treatment expressed concern about his ailment.

“This patient has been on treatment for PTB for the sixth time. It’s disturbing and we need to identify whether we have somebody, re-infecting him,” one of the doctors wrote in a 2021 medical report seen by this publication.

Commenting on the issue, Evaline Kibuchi, the head of Stop TB Partnership-Kenya said that if a patient is treated more than once for the same disease with no improvement, calls for further investigation.

“This is a sign that the patient could be suffering from another lung condition other than TB or in addition to TB,” said Kibuchi
Chege walks with an 11-kilogramme oxygen concentrator to support his breathing.

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