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Good news for Ugandan, Tanzanian children suffering from TB

Saturday December 05 2015
EATUBERCULOSIS

A doctor prepares a BCG vaccine, which is typically given to infants. The new medicines are dispersible and palatable, simple to administer and affordable. PHOTO | FILE

Children suffering from tuberculosis will now have access to child-friendly medicines in correct doses.

The new treatments, according to the TB Alliance and its partners, are the first to meet the dosage guidelines set by the World Health Organisation in 2010. The medicines are dispersible and palatable, simple to administer and affordable.

In East Africa, Uganda and Tanzania will begin procuring the medicines — made available through a project largely funded by Unitaid — immediately through the Global Drug Facility while Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi will follow next year.

WHO revised its guidelines for childhood TB treatment in 2010, recognising that children need higher doses of the medicines than what they were receiving.

“The new fixed-dose formulations for children will offer hope for the 400 children who needlessly die of TB each day. Urgent action is needed to ensure these medicines reach those in need and rapidly improve child survival of TB,” said Mario Raviglione, director of the Global TB Programme at WHO.

The new TB medicines are fixed-dose combinations of the three most commonly used drugs to treat drug-sensitive TB.

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“We need to make sure all children with TB are diagnosed and treated with the best medicines possible. I’m proud to say Kenya plans to adopt these new products for our children immediately, which will greatly improve our response to treating drug-resitant TB,” said Enos Masini, the national tuberculosis programme manager.

According to the WHO, at least one million children become ill with TB each year and 140,000 die of it.

“The availability of correctly dosed medications will improve treatment for children everywhere,” said Mel Spigelman, president and chief executive of the TB Alliance.

TB now ranks as the world’s leading infectious disease killer alongside HIV/Aids. The disease is curable with treatment that consists of multiple drugs and must be taken for a minimum of six months.

Of the 1.5 million global deaths attributed to the disease last year, at least 50,000 were from East Africa, mostly from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The East African region reported over 200,000 TB cases last year with Kenya recording 110,000 cases followed by Uganda 72,000 and Tanzania 36,000.

Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe rank the highest TB-burden countries in Africa.

Children need different doses of TB medicines than adults. Today, for parents and care providers to approximate the correct dose for a child, they must crush or chop available drugs, and piece together the treatment regimen. Splitting TB pills, which usually results in imprecise dosing, makes the treatment journey even more difficult for children and their families.

Such challenges can also make treatment less effective, leading to poor health outcomes and the development of more difficult to treat drug-resistant TB in children.

“No child should die of TB, yet for too long, we have not had the medicines or the functioning market needed to mount a sustainable response against childhood TB,” said Lelio Marmora, executive director of Unitaid.

“Unitaid’s investment in addressing this problem will increase access to correctly dosed, quality-assured, affordable TB medicines for children that will help save lives,” he added.

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