On Tuesday, July 30, 2020, The Ministry of Health in Kenya in collaboration with implementing partners introduced two new treatment initiatives to step up efforts to end TB epidemic in Kenya: Latent TB Infection (LTBI) and Drug-Resistant TB (DR-TB) Injectable-Free (IFR) treatment policy documents.
The new initiatives comes at a time when the country is battling the COVID-19 crisis, and when protecting individuals with lowered immunity and with other co-morbidities including people affected by TB is of outmost importance.
Speaking during the launch which was conducted alongside the daily COVID-19 briefings, the Ministry Chief Administrative Secretary Dr Rashid Aman said the rollout of Injectable Free Regimens for the treatment of DR-TB is in line with the World Health Organisation’s recently released DR-TB treatment guidelines which call on the global community to move from current regimens to Injectable Free Regimens to improve treatment outcomes.
Since 2006, patients diagnosed with DR-TB in Kenya have been treated using injections and oral medicines, with longer treatment periods and more side effects in comparison to drugs used to treat Drug-Sensitive TB. In 2017 the country adopted a shorter treatment option – lasting 9 months – but which still relied on daily injections for a minimum of 4 months. Besides the painful injections, these drugs could lead to permanent hearing loss and associated social challenges in up to one-fifth of the patients. The Injectable Free Regimens (all oral) are revolutionary and will improve the quality of life for DR-TB patients while avoiding the misery associated with hearing loss.
The Latent TB policy aims at providing a framework to guide the management of Latent TB infections as a key strategy to ending TB by 2035 in Kenya. This will be achieved through the systematic implementation of evidence-based interventions on identifying the at-risk populations, screening them, offering a timely diagnosis and effective treatment options and monitoring them to treatment completion. The policy is also aimed at offering guidance to all stakeholders on the management of Latent TB infections in Kenya.
Although TB is a preventable and curable disease, it remains among the world’s top infectious diseases, killing 4,000 people each day, and nearly 1.5 million each year. In Kenya, TB affects more than 169,000 people each year and is the fourth leading cause of death, killing nearly 29,000 people annually. The WHO ranks Kenya among the world’s 30 high burden TB countries, with TB being the leading cause of death among infectious diseases in the country.
The Ministry of Health and its partners continue to be at the forefront in the fight against this disease, making use of the latest treatment guidelines and innovative interventions to end the epidemic.
Centre for Health Solutions – Kenya through the USAID funded Tuberculosis Accelerated Response and Care II (TB ARC II) activity offered technical support towards the development and launch of these two policy documents.
