•Ministry eliminates daily injections for patients with the drug-resistant TB. They will now only take daily pills for 11 months.
•New strategies aims to eliminate TB from Kenya by 2035.
At least 900,000 asymptomatic Kenyans are walking TB time bombs, carriers of tuberculosis that could easily become an epidemic under the right conditions, the Ministry of Health says.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said health workers will try to identify and put all the estimated 900,000 on treatment to prevent a full-blown epidemic.
Kenya treated 90,000 people for active, non drug-resistant TB last year. They are assumed to be the tenth that developed from the 900,000 latent cases, the World Health Organization says.
The assumption is that the 90,000 Kenyans who were treated for active TB last year, had been living with latent TB for at least five years before 2019.
The recommendation on identification and treatment is contained in the ‘National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Health 2019-2023’, which the ministry released on Tuesday.
Latent or hidden infection occurs when a person is infected with the TB bacteria but does not have any symptoms. The person is not contagious for about five years.
Kagwe said about 10 per cent of them develop active disease within five years but are not infectious before then, yet they are a danger because no one knows when that estimated five-year period ends.
The others can develop the full-blown disease earlier if their body immunity is compromised by other diseases such as HIV-Aids.
"People with latent TB infection pose a great threat in the community as they are the breeding ground for the TB epidemic," Kagwe wrote in the report.
He said the new strategy aims to eliminate TB from Kenya by 2035.
The CS said the inactive bacteria is probably lurking among people with HIV and their family members, caregivers and contacts of people with active TB.
Others are healthcare workers, prisoners and patients on immunosuppressive therapy like dialysis, or those preparing for organ donation.
He said these key groups will first be screened for the cardinal symptoms of TB such as cough, fever and weight loss.
Those without such symptoms will undergo TB lab tests.
"TB preventive therapy is offered to individuals who are considered at risk of developing TB in order to reduce that risk," he said.
Tuberculosis is the fifth leading cause of death in Kenya. According to ministry data, 96,434 people were diagnosed with active tuberculosis in 2019.
Another 669 were diagnosed with Multiple Drug Resistant (MDR) tuberculosis.
On Tuesday, the ministry also inaugurated a new policy to eliminate the daily injections for patients with drug-resistant TB.
They will only have to take daily pills for one year.
"Besides the daily painful injections, these drugs are associated with permanent hearing loss in up to 20 per cent of patients," Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache said.
She said only 66 per cent of the drug-resistant TB patients in Kenya survived the old treatment.
"The injectable free regimens are revolutionary and will improve the quality of life for our drug-resistant TB patients while avoiding the misery associated with hearing loss," she said.
In 2017, Kenya shortened MDR tuberculosis treatment from 20 months to the current nine to 11 months. The injectable medicines were given for four to six months.
(Edited by V. Graham)