TB kills 23 in West Akyem

More than 23 persons have died of Tuberculosis (TB) in West Akyem Municipality of the Eastern Region, Today can report.

The alarming spread of TB infections, according to health personnel in the area, needed to be curtailed.

The Disease Control Officer at the Health Directorate, Mr. Moses Ali Laar, in an interview with journalists revealed that “three deaths have so far been recorded this year alone.”

He attributed the deaths to undue delays in patients seeking medication.

He also bemoaned the fact that most of them resorted to prayer camps and herbalists for healing after they were made to believe that TB was a spiritual attack, warning that it has the possibility of exacerbating their conditions.

TB is caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, an organism that causes infection in humans.

It is disturbing; Ghana is currently recording 640 new cases per year in a new form of tuberculosis cases.

Ghana is a TB endemic country; 14,632 cases were diagnosed and put on treatment in 2015.

Out of the above number, 12 died, 15 were declared cured while 51 are still on treatment.

National Tuberculosis Programme began enrollment of Multidrug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases onto treatment in 2012 which currently has about 182 patients being treated.

In 2015, TB killed 1.5 million people worldwide and an estimate of 26,000 people in the sub-Sahara Africa, and in Asia, particularly in India and China.