TB patients warned against self medication

AN OFFICIAL of the Baguio City Health Services Office (HSO) warned Tuberculosis (TB) patients against self-medication as it cause negative consequences.

Dr. Donnabel Tuvera of HSO said self-medication among TB patients is a contributing factor to the rise in number of drug- resistant TB cases at of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center. Self-medication could also lead to eventual death, she warned.

Tuvera advised patients who have cough lasting for two weeks to go for medical consultation and avail of the free treatment that the government provides.

“It is best to go to a clinic and consult a physician who will give you prescribed the proper

medication,” Tuvera emphasized.

The city HSO provides free sputum exam and chest X-ray as well as medicines for TB patients for the six-month course of treatment. In the Programmatic Management of Drug-Resistant TB (PMDT), the government subsidizes the cost of medicines amounting to about P300,000 for each patient.

Patients sent for treatment to PMDT are those who no longer respond to the first line of drugs or those drug-resistant because they do not respond to the normal medication for TB which takes two years of required treatment, Tuvera explained.

She also announced free Purified Protein Derivative (PPD) skin testing is available for children suspected of having primary complex.

Studies show a TB patient can easily infect as many as 10 to 20 persons a year through sneeze, spit, cough, and loud singing. Smokers are at high risk of having chance of contracting TB compared to a non-smoker.

Tuvera shared the top five leading causes of death in Baguio are related to smoking.