Ghana records first case of drug-resistant TB

Ghana has recorded its first case of extremely drug-resistant Tuberculosis.

According to the programme Manager, TB Control Programme at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Frank Bonsu, the victim has died.

The rare type of TB known as XDR TB does not respond to the standard treatment with first-line anti-TB drugs and can take up to two years or more to treat with drugs that are less potent, more toxic and much more expensive.

Speaking at a media sensitisation programme on Tuberculosis on Friday, 16 March 2018 ahead of the 2018 World TB Day, Dr Bonsu called for concerted efforts to fight what he calls the new menace.

He said: “We need leaders to fight the new menace which is coming to Ghana, a drug-resistance TB. I’m not proud to announce that Ghana has reported its first case of XDR TB, an extensively drug-resistance TB.

“If we don’t wake up, the TB is resistant to all treatment, if we don’t contain it and this breaks out as an epidemic, we’re finished as a country. The patient that was diagnosed has passed on and Nogouchi is working hard to try to see if the relatives and neighbours have the bacterial...this is the time for all leaders to wake up…”

Ghana will observe this year’s World TB Day on 22 March 2018 on the theme: “Wanted, leaders for TB free world”.