Health Minister Dr. Irving McIntyre disclosed that there are no present cases of Tuberculosis (TB) at the moment. He said there are no truths to suggest that there is an outbreak of TB on the island. He made this revelation while addressing lawmakers at the first meeting of the 10th Parliament a couple of days back.
McIntyre was responding to prevailing concerns that there is an outbreak of TB in Dominica. He reminded lawmakers at the newly constituted House of Assembly that the island witnessed 11 cases of TB last, and that out of the five cases seen this year, three were confirmed and two are not conclusive.
The minister of health revealed that the health sector in Dominica has a first-class laboratory that could test and confirm cases of tuberculosis. He said that the only issue the health department faces on occasion is a scarcity of drugs for tuberculosis prevention and treatment. But he said this is not an issue at the moment.
“There are certain drugs you need to prevent multi-drug resistance in tuberculosis,” Dr. McIntyre said. “We have taken it a step further; we have actually gotten 5000 of these tablets. So, the idea of a stock out doesn’t exist anymore. These are different interventions that we are taking.”
Tuberculosis is an infection transmitted by inhalation or ingestion of tubercle bacilli and manifested in fever and small lesions – usually in the lungs but also in other parts of the body in acute stages.
In the case of Dengue fever, McIntyre stated that “last year, we had 30 cases of Dengue per week. This year we are down to 11. Last year, we had about 11 admissions, and this year we are down to two.”
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