Poor compliance blamed for surge in drug-resistant tuberculosis
Clinical Pharmacists need to make patients aware of the dangers of failing to complete their TB treatment, after an HPA report showed cases of drug-resistant strains of the disease rocketed 26 per cent last year.
Commissioners must focus on treatment compliance in patients with tuberculosis (TB), after cases of drug-resistant strains rocketed 26 per cent last year, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has urged.
New tuberculosis cases in the UK rose to 8,963 patients last year, a hike from 8,410 in 2010, with treatment-resistant cases climbing to 431 in 2011 compared with 342 in 2010, according to the UK health watchdog. Failure to complete treatment was one of the key causes for the rise and represented a "concern and a challenge", said HPA head of TB surveillance Ibrahim Abubakar.
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"If patients don't turn up I pick up the phone and ask them what's going on" Jignesh Patel, Rohpharm Pharmacy |
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Although the proportion of patients completing their treatment had risen to 84 per cent from 78 per cent in 2001, local commissioners had to "ensure they coordinate their TB control activities so that completion of treatment can be ensured", Professor Abubakar added. Jignesh Patel, whose Rohpharm Pharmacy in Plaistow, London runs a TB clinic, said ensuring patients completed the full course of TB medication was a problem. "We have issues with about 15 per cent of patients who don't regularly turn up for their supervised consumption," he said. "The risk is that if they're not getting treated properly it can spread the infection and the new strain may not be as easily treatable, so we will have to add additional drugs." |
Text message medicines prompts producing 'fantastic
results'It was vital for pharmacists to make patients aware of the dangers of failing to complete their treatment, Mr Patel added. "If patients don't turn up I pick up the phone and ask them what's going on," he added.
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