Patient hails new XDR TB treatment
New trial making it easier for many to stick to their medication
ASHORTER, injection free and less toxic tuberculosis (TB) regimen has improved the life of a Khayelitsha resident. Goodman Makanda, 35, a TB activist, said he was diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB) in 2013. He was on TB treatment for four years. Makanda said he started treatment by taking 20 pills plus and an injection every weekday. Due to the side effects of the pills he would get more ailments and his tablet intake increased to 35 pills a day.
At the launch of Expand New Drug markets for TB (endTB), the new trial for drug-resistant TB treatment held at the Town Two Clinic, Makanda encouraged Multi-Drug resistant (MDR) TB patients to participate and be among the 120 South Africans on the trial. “I started recovering when I was introduced to the new medication. I was on the medication for nine months and it healed me .”
Makanda said through his journey with the disease he lost his job due to the daily visits to the clinic and his employers, due to the stigma surrounding TB, feared he would infect his colleagues.
“My TB was not normal. At first I myself never understood it, but later learnt to accept it. The stigma and never-ending clinic visits also affect one’s life and self-esteem.” Standard MDR-TB treatment can run up to 24 months and exposes patients to serious side effects. South Africa recently introduced a shorter nine months injection, but according to doctors it was still showing a lot more challenges.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) co-ordinator in SA doctor Amir Shroufi said: “Bedaquiline and delamanid are the first TB drugs to have been developed in almost 50 years.
“The current treatment offered is long and people don’t like injecting daily.
“It is also proven that only 54% of patients have success in treatment.”
Shroufi said the trial was also being run in other parts of the world and 750 patients would participate. It would run until 2020. In the country specifically it will only be run in Khayelitsha.
Dr Laura Triviño, MSF’s medical referent in Khayelitsha, said: “We have used this expertise to put patients at the heart of our trial and designed something which aims to radically improve their experience.”