By Bobor Dan Kamara
The Medical Coordinator of Medecins Sans Frontieres/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Dr Bukola Oluyide, in an exclusive interview with the News Watch Newspaper underscored their unwavering commitment to supporting the National Leprosy and Tuberculosis Control Programme (NLTCP) to decentralize TB care and further make it ambulatory.
She cited the ambulatory system as one that allows TB patients to go home and do follow-up treatment once they prove that they are stable and there is no risk of transmitting the disease to others.
She stated that the MSF Test, Avoid, Cure TB in Children (TACTIC) global initiative surveyed 14 countries this year on the implementation of the latest 2022 guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) to diagnosis, treat and prevent TB in children in which Sierra Leone was among.
The result reveals that the country is 88% aligned for recommended policies for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of drug-sensitive and drug resistant TB in children.
Dr Bukola Oluyide furthered that TB has no typical symptoms in children, calling on healthcare workers to be guided by the algorithm and recommendations.
“Children can be treated for TB if healthcare workers have a high index of suspicion that the child might have TB,” she averred.
He revealed that they have supported the NLTCP with caring for patients living with TB in 15 Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) sites in Bombali district at primary healthcare facilities where children are being tested based on the treatment decision algorithm chart and initiated on treatment.
Alimamy Sesay, a community health worker at the Ministry of Health Makeni Regional Hospital, said in the past, many children were misdiagnosed and treated for pneumonia or other lungs infections, a reason they often fell ill again and returned to the hospital, while some lost their lives.
When they started diagnosing the children using the clinical decision algorithm chart and provided them with anti-TB medication, he stated that things changed.
Dr. Bukola Oluyide called on international partners and donors to support the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone financially and operationally in ensuring a nationwide roll-out and implementations of these guidelines in primary and secondary health care facilities. She further referenced the successes in Bombali district as a testament of the efficiency of the guidelines and further averred that more children will be diagnosed, treated, and prevented from TB if support is given for its implementation nationwide.
