Over 40 per cent of patients diagnosed with tuberculosis in Kiambu county do not follow up with doctors advise on medication, the Ministry of Health has said.
Lari level 4 hospital TB and respiratory coordinator Patricia Mwangi said the most affected are male patients.
She said men have a poor health seeking behavior, saying a bigger number of them do not follow up with the treatment.
Mwangi revealed that out of more than 5,000 cases of people diagnosed with TB in the county in 2018, Lari had 395 cases.
Speaking at Lari police station on Saturday during a free TB and other diseases screening, the medic said 40 per cent of the 395 did not come back to follow up on medication.
"We in Lari had a 395 cases out of more than 5,000 cases in the county. What we have noted, about 40 per cent of them do not follow up doctors advise in regard to treatment" she said.
"We are hereby encouraging men to volunteer being screened for diseases since they do not. They have a poor health seeking behavior. Even today, women and children were almost three quarter of those who came. Men were very few," she said.
Deputy director Rodi Kenya, Esther Bett, said they are partnering with the ministry of health to sensitise the public about the TB diseases.
They were accompanied by Lari deputy sub county police commander Joshua Opondo, and Lari OCS Festus Okoth among officials.
Bett said a research done by National TB and Respiratory Program indicates that cases of people suffering TB disease is on the rise.
She said the report indicates a number of people diagnosed with the disease do not take treatment.
"This is a programme we have launched today, and we want to help the government establish where these people go and encourage them to take treatment," Bett said.
Mwangi said the people they detected with the disease will under go gene-expert tests and x-ray check ups at their hospital, so as to ascertain if they really have the respiratory disease so that they can start treatment, which takes up to six months.
