India: 20 of 26 Sewri hospital staffers with TB have MDR variant
Mumbai: Twenty of the 26 employees of the civic-run Sewri TB Hospital, under treatment for tuberculosis, suffer from the multi-drug-resistant variant, according to civic statistics. Only six are under treatment for regular TB.
The numbers were again under focus after a senior laboratory
technician from the hospital succumbed to MDR TB on Saturday.
While employees claimed that not enough is being to stop the
"growing incidence of drug-resistant TB'' among them,
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities claimed
that the severity and deaths due to the disease had decreased
over five years.
"The authorities claim only four employees have died this year
but TB has claimed more lives. The number of staffers suffering
from the extremely drug-resistant strain is more than the
authorities claim,'' said Municipal Mazdoor Union's Pradeep
Narkar. A class IV worker said staffers suffering from
drug-resistant TB are classified as 'DrTB' patients, with no
further detail given about it being MDR or XDR TB. Twenty are
under treatment for MDR TB. Another employee pointed out that
the hospital has 1,300 staff, but less than 800 work at any
given time. "So the ones around have to work longer hours and
get more exposed to the TB bacilli,'' he added.
However, Sewri TB medical superintendent Dr Rajendra Nanavare
told TOI that the systematic changes in the hospital's infection
control programmes and staff diet were bearing results. "We have
realised that the cure rate has been improving since we started
our surveillance programme in 2011,'' said Dr Nanavare. He added
that the 13 staffers who died of TB since 2011 had some
co-morbidity.
A long-time employee of the hospital said healthcare workers
were 10 times more susceptible to infectious diseases. "It is
the reason why staff of infectious diseases hospitals should be
rotated every few years,'' he added.
Source:
The Times of India
