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
