| More than 91 percent of all Tuberculosis patients were tested for HIV in 2010 and about 25 percent were found to be HIV positive, according to Minister of Health,NFL Jerseys Cheap, Dr Leslie Ramsammy. In fact he revealed that about 70 percent of all TB deaths in Guyana are because of AIDS.According to him there were 60 TB deaths in Guyana last year and the rate of TB mortality then was about eight per 100,000 persons in the population. However, this figure, the Minister said, is less than half of the TB mortality rate 10 years ago – a development he attributed to better and earlier diagnostic and treatment capacities in the country.The Minister’s remarks were detailed in a statement issued to mark the observance of World Tuberculosis Day yesterday under the theme ‘On the move against TB: Transforming the fight towards elimination’.Dr. Ramsammy expressed his conviction that the ancient disease can be stopped even as he highlighted his belief that “we have not used our scientific knowledge enough and we have not recognised globally that TB is truly an important public health threat that also is a threat in our effort to end poverty.”And even as World TB Day is observed, Minister Ramsammy disclosed that he will be calling on the global community to address the global constraints “if we expect to overcome the TB scourge that plagued human kind since ancient times.”According to the Minister there are a number of constraints that serve as difficulties in the fight against TB and unless it is addressed on a global scale the problem cannot be solved. He pointed to the fact that the current regimen for standard TB treatment involves four different medicines taken over six to nine months.This long period of treatment,China Jerseys, he said, is simply unbearable for too many TB patients and therefore has proven to be a serious constraint, as it leads to non-compliance among persons being treated for TB. These persons are at high risk for developing resistant strains of TB, leading to multiple drug resistant (MDR and XDR) strains of TB. But even though there is still a small number of persons in Guyana with MDR, Minister Ramsammy warned that this is a big and growing problem in the world, with more than two percent of all cases now being classified in the world as MDR and XDR TB.As such there is a need for a more robust effort to develop newer medicines for TB that will enable a shorter treatment period.“At this time, the possibility of newer, more useful medicine seems a distant possibility. The world authorities will have to promote more aggressive research to remedy this situation.”Posing another challenge is the fact that children are treated with the same medicines as adults, the Minister added. For this reason, he said, there is a need for medicine formulations to treat children under 15 years old.Although the number of children with TB is small in Guyana,China Jerseys Wholesale, Minister Ramsammy noted that globally more than 20 percent of all TB cases are among children. He added that the lack of medicine formulation for children is a serious constraint and at this time, there is very little evidence that much effort is being made to produce paediatric medicines for TB.“It is my position that this is a moral issue and we are failing in the test of responding to the needs of our most vulnerable population – our children.”The Minister pointed out that for more than 100 years,NFL Jerseys China, the health sectors have relied on the same tests for TB. The skin test called the Mantoux test only identifies persons who have been exposed to TB, but does not identify persons with active TB.The sputum microscopy test, although it is a very good test, misses about half of the cases, according to Minister Ramsammy. X-Rays also help doctors to make diagnoses as do culture tests for the bacteria.Other than the Mantoux test, all the others require health workers with certain skills and availability of technology,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, the Minister added. In addition,Cheap Football Jerseys, these tests do not provide rapid results and require some time before test results are available. This limits testing and makes access to diagnosis weak in most primary health care settings.But according to the Minister there is better news on this front, since a newer test that would provide more rapid results is now available, although not yet on a commercial basis. |
