In a bid to curb high Tuberculosis (TB) cases in the district, Gicumbi Hospital, Northern Province has started a counter drive.

This was revealed last week during a countrywide tour of hospitals by officials from the Ministry of Health.

Donatha Uwanyirigira, a laboratory manager with the hospital, noted that they receive an average of 10 patients with TB-related cases per day and that most of them are usually 25 years and above.

Bonaventure Butare, a monitoring and evaluation officer with the hospital, observed that following the introduction of the  GeneXpert machine, a TB detection equipment, about six months ago, coupled with intensive awareness campaigns, TB cases registered had increased.

"Between July and September 2013, 16 cases of  mild TB were registered but this increased to 19, between  October and December the same year,” Butare said.

He said two community based health workers are deployed in each of the 630 villages in the district  to sensitise the public about prevention and treatment of TB.

Leonard Uwayezu, the head of the TB section, said the hospital has a fully fledged TB isolation wing with capacity to host  about four patients.

"With the introduction of the GeneXpert machine, the time for waiting for test results has since reduced, for instance a Multi Drug Resistant TB test that used to take three days now takes one day,” he noted.  

Uwayezu remarked that HIV/Aids patients are most vulnerable to TB, "five out of every 10 people with TB were also found to have HIV/Aids, according to statistics gathered  between June and December last year.”

He said they now have two full-time experts who handle TB-related issues, unlike before when they used to rely on part-time medics from other departments.

"The biggest challenge we face is that of some patients giving up on the dosage, since they take long. For instance, the MDR TB dosage  takes 20-24 months to get done,” Uwayezu said.

Fred Muhairwe, the hospital medical director, noted  that about 600 community based  health workers have so far been trained in detecting and reporting signs of  TB.

He pointed out that the hospital had developed a short messaging service (SMS) system, whereby a community based health worker is able to notify a health centre about a suspected TB case in their area of jurisdiction.

Muhairwe said the budget allocated to TB alone by the hospital annually ranges between Rwf6 million and 10 million.