Health experts urge state to address shortages of TB drugs

Health stakeholders have called on the government to move with urgency and address the persistent shortages of TB drugs and testing cartridges.

Speaking during the ongoing high-level meeting in Nairobi, TB experts have raised concern that the country has suffered from shortages of with patients having to share packs.

In an effort to mitigate the crisis, healthcare workers have to open packs for patients to share the drugs among two or three patients.

According to AIDS Healthcare Foundation Kenya country director Samuel Kinyanjui, each pack is usually designed and meant for one patient for the entire course of six months.

In the initial phase, patients are supposed to come every two weeks to collect their medication for two months and then come once per month for the subsequent months.

“When you force them to come more frequently some are defaulting because some may not have fare to come or sometimes they lack the time to come and collect the medication," Kinyanjui said.

“The risk is when the patient interrupts treatment the TB germ that is in them mutates and becomes drug resistant. Treating drug resistance is more expensive and the treatment outcomes are much lower so this is a great risk to the country.” 

Stop TB Partnership Kenya National Coordinator Everlyn Kibuchi said the shortages have persisted for more than six months.

However, the government made a procurement of 7,000 packs with another consignment of 28,000 packs expected to be received before the end of October.

They however said this is a drop in the ocean based on the fact that the shortage has hit the country over a long period of time.

Should the packs be procured, the country will have stocks to last until the end of 2023 and a few months in 2024.

“My problem is we should not have this piecemeal distribution of drugs for a communicable disease. Any day that goes without TB drugs in the country should be handled as an emergency because we are creating more cases” Kibuchi said.

“We appreciate the fact that they are going to deliver by the end of the month, but can we have a system where we have a seamless supply of TB drugs and we have buffer stock so that we do not use our stocks completely.” 

National coordinator of Network TB Champions in Kenya Stephen Anguba said even though the government has put in more effort to combat TB in the country, some challenges persist.

He said the shortage of TB drugs is affecting adherence among patients.

"The effect might include poor adherence because somebody has to choose between having to come for their TB drugs or going for their normal work," Angumba said.

Kenya is among 30 high TB burden countries in the world. The Ministry of Health says about 139,000 people a year develop TB (35,000 of them being HIV-positive) and 21,600 people die from it.

By 2020, TB was the fourth largest cause of death in Kenya.