First MDR-TB patients celebrate end of treatment

“I feel like jumping and dancing and shouting,” said Linda Vilakati. “It has been a long and difficult journey, but I’ve reached the end.” Linda is one of 55 people celebrating with songs, smiles and tears at Mankayane hospital in Swaziland. Linda is 48, but the youngest at the party is just three years old. They are the first group to complete two years of gruelling treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) at MSF’s project in Mankayane, run in partnership with Swaziland’s Ministry of Health.  Swaziland © Zanele Zwane/MSF. 48-year old Linda Vilakati is one of 55 patients who have just successfully completed treatment for MDR-TB in Swaziland. Linda waves a certificate, which reads: “Although treatment was lengthy and came with its hardships, at the end I managed because I value my life and my health comes first.” Linda began treatment for tuberculosis (TB) in 2010, but two years later he had gotten worse rather than better. He was diagnosed with MDR-TB, a strain of the disease that is resistant to treatment by the usual drugs. The only medicines available for MDR-TB are highly toxic and can have serious side effects.  “After six months of injections I developed ear problems,” said Linda. What began as a buzzing noise in his ears developed into partial deafness in his right ear and total deafness in his left. The deafness caused by the drugs is irreversible, but Linda now accepts that, with the current drugs, there was simply no al...
Source: MSF News - Category: Global & Universal Tags: Swaziland NEWS Tuberculosis Frontpage Source Type: news