Health stakeholders have called on the government to move with urgency and address the persistent shortages of TB drugs and testing cartridges.
Speaking during the ongoing high-level meeting in Nairobi, TB experts have raised concern that the country has suffered from shortages of with patients having to share packs.
In an effort to mitigate the crisis, healthcare workers have to open packs for patients to share the drugs among two or three patients.
According to AIDS Healthcare Foundation Kenya country director Samuel Kinyanjui, each pack is usually designed and meant for one patient for the entire course of six months.
In the initial phase, patients are supposed to come every two weeks to collect their medication for two months and then come once per month for the subsequent months.
“When you force them to come more frequently some are defaulting because some may not have fare to come or sometimes they lack the time to come and collect the medication,” Kinyanjui said.
“The risk is when the patient interrupts treatment the TB germ that is in them mutates and becomes drug resistant. Treating drug resistance is more expensive and the treatment outcomes are much lower so this is a great risk to the country.”
Stop TB Partnership Kenya National Coordinator Everlyn Kibuchi said the shortages have persisted for more than six months.
However, the government made a procurement of 7,000 packs with another consignment of 28,000 packs expected to be received before the end of October.
They however said this is a drop in the ocean based on the fact that the shortage has hit the country over a long period of time.
