Thandeka Kubheka, a TB auxiliary nurse at Witkoppen Clinic, explains the symptoms that people with TB suffer from.
What are the symptoms?
Mlotshwa explained that he and his colleagues have been trained to look out for four main identifying symptoms of the illness:
Coughing for two weeks, or for any duration if you have a compromised immune system (such as someone with HIV)
An unexplained loss of weight.
A persistent fever that youve had for over two weeks and cannot explain
Sweating, especially at night
Juddy Kwetsi, a TB auxiliary nurse at Witkoppen Clinic, holds up some of the medication used to treat the illness. What medication is prescribed depends on the patients weight and what other health issues they may have.Photo: Robyn Kirk
Other related symptoms to watch out for are a loss of appetite, weakness and fatigue. At the clinic, we routinely screen for TB and well ask questions about these four symptoms. We then take a specimen sample from the patient [of sputum, basically a mixture of spit and mucus coughed up by the patient into a specimen jar] and send it to the lab, where theyll test it for the presence of the bacteria.
Lawrence Mlotshwa, the head of Witkoppen Clinics TB department, told the Fourways Review that about 55 patients who had visited the clinic between January and early March this year have been diagnosed with TB. Photo: Robyn Kirk
Witkoppen Clinic has a special section on site, closed off and with hygiene facilities named Bekezela, where patients being screened can safely provide a sputum sample without risking the infection of others. Once the sample is donated, a TB assistant will label the sample with the patients information and send it through to the lab for testing.
Semile Nhlongo of the Witkoppen Clinic accepts a specimen from a clinic patient, which she will label with the correct patient information and send through to the lab in order to determine if this patient has TB. Photo: Robyn Kirk
How is TB treated?
Here at Witkoppen Clinic, we treat patients holistically, so the treatment for TB would be different for, say, someone who is also HIV positive or other health issues, Mlotshwa explained. We treat TB with medication and the regiment has two phases. The intensive phase lasts for two months and we give them medication with four agents to fight off the bacteria. Then its the continuation phase, where we continue to treat the patient with two agents for between three to six months.
The doses for each patient is based on their weight and it is vitally important to finish your course of treatment even if you start to feel better after only a few months. We strictly advise patients that they mustnt stop early, as, if they are not completely cured, the TB will come back stronger, which is how you end up with drug-resistant TB.
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Four things you need to know about TB this TB Awareness Month - Fourways Review
