Health Ministry introduces new clinical guidelines to combat TB

The Ministry of Health, in its ongoing fight against tuberculosis (TB), launched clinical guidelines for healthcare practitioners on Thursday.

The handbook provides doctors and other medical personnel with instructions for treating latent TB in infants, children, and adults. Guidelines include dosage instructions for medication at each stage, the frequency and duration of treatment, scheduling for initial and follow-up tests, and recommendations for managing patients co-infected with HIV and TB.

Additional content covers treatment guidelines for special populations, patient follow-up care, and locations of TB treatment sites across Guyana.

The launch event was held in the Ministry of Health’s conference room in Brickdam.

Attendees included Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony, Dr Quacy Grant, Dr Harsha Mohan, and medical personnel from all ten administrative regions of Guyana.

The Ministry of Health’s goal is to eradicate TB and reduce the suffering that comes along with the disease, stress, financial burden and mental health issues.

The Ministry’s 2015 baseline figure was to have a 75% reduction in TB deaths and 50% reduction in TB incidence by 2025, which was partially achieved as the infection rate has significantly declined but death rate remains the same.

Dr Grant in his presentation stated: “In this new guideline, we focus on patient- centered care. The patient is the center of our universe…if we find that we are deficient in any knowledge that would mean optimal care for our patient we should continue to do reading, research and attend training sessions. The patient’s goal in Guyana is to get this treatment over with and that’s why in these guidelines we’re looking to shorten the regimen for the first line treatment”.

Tuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by a bacteria, mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is expelled into the air when a carrier coughs, sneezes or spits.

According to the last confirmed recorded statistics by the Ministry, in 2023 TB was still one of the leading causes of mortality globally with 1.25 million deaths. In Guyana 520 persons contracted the disease, 75.5 % men, 24.5% women and 1.7% children, with 27 deaths.

The handbook contains information on treatment of latent TB infections for infants, children and adults who are HIV positive, have diabetes and are pregnant or breastfeeding.

The medications to be used are isoniazid, vitamin B6, rifampicin and isoniazid and rifampicin 3HP.

There is also TB treatment regimen by category which includes sensitive TB and confirmed MDR-TB (multidrug-resistant tuberculosis) case, which is a form of tuberculosis caused by bacteria resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin.

Another important stage outlined in the handbook is the follow up care of patients which include complete blood count, liver function test, renal function test, random blood test and more.

Dr. Frank Anthony congratulated the team’s efforts in shaping the new TB guidelines,

“I’m sure we’ll work very hard to make sure that they are properly implemented. Because one of the things with guidelines, we make good guidelines and then we have problems with people not following the guidelines. I hope that is not going to be the case here, let’s make sure that it’s properly implemented”.