For this, the National Tuberculosis Center (NTC) with support from the Global Fund will build 10 hostels in different parts of the country. [break]
International Nepal Fellowship (INF), a local Non Government Organization (NGO), has already set up such a hostel in Nepalgunj where the number of MDR-TB patients is high.
According to doctors, the condition of MDR implies strains of tuberculosis that resist at least two main first-line TB drugs. Doctors say TB patients develop MDR condition when they stop taking drugs. Likewise, faulty prescription and poor quality of drugs also cause MDR condition.
“The donor agency (GF) has approved the proposal for keeping MDR-TB patients in hostels, away from masses,” Dr Bhawana Shrestha, Chief of German Nepal tuberculosis project (GENETUP), said. “We are now waiting for a nod from National Planning Commission.”
According to Shrestha, of the total TB patients who visit over 4,000 treatment centers across the country, three percent are diagnosed with MDR-TB.
“New MDR-TB patients might have contracted the disease from old patients,” she said. “Once we isolate MDR-TB patients, chances of them transmitting the disease to others would be diminished.”
It is estimated that there are around 300 MDR-TB patients across the country. However, only 180 of them have been traced as of now.
Shrestha said the number of Extensive Drug Resistant (XDR)-TB patients is also increasing by the day.
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