Mozambique: Doctors Seek New Treatments Against TB
By, Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo), December 7, 2006
Mozambican and Portuguese medical specialists are unanimous about the need to seek new and more effective mechanisms for the treatment of tuberculosis.
The deputy director of research at the Medical Faculty of Maputo's Eduardo Mondlane University, Mamudo Ismail, speaking on Wednesday, during the closing session of a Mozambique/Portugal Medical Congress, said that it is the association with HIV/AIDS that has made tuberculosis more difficult to treat.
He pointed out that between 70 and 80 per cent of HIV- positive patients also have tuberculosis.
HIV attacks the human body's immune system, making the victim vulnerable to infection. TB is one of the most common of these opportunist infections.
Ismail said that the three day meeting discussed the association of tuberculosis with HIV/AIDS, and the question of which disease should be tackled first in attempts to stabilise the condition of patients.
The doctors discussed the question of resistance to antibiotics and other drugs, often due to interruption or abandonment of tuberculosis treatment, and the new phenomenon of resistance to the anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs used to prolong the lives of HIV-positive patients.
"As you know, the HIV virus is in permanent mutation, and within one or two weeks there will be new variants of the virus, hence the difficulty in finding a vaccine", said Ismail.
The Portuguese doctors "also brought an update in the therapeutic scheme, in the existing types of drugs and the cocktails of drugs used, which may differ from those used by the Health Ministry, and they showed the advantages and disadvantages of each", said Ismail.
The meeting discussed various themes related to public health and produced recommendations that are to guide doctors' work in the future.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200612070954.html
Mozambican and Portuguese medical specialists are unanimous about the need to seek new and more effective mechanisms for the treatment of tuberculosis.
The deputy director of research at the Medical Faculty of Maputo's Eduardo Mondlane University, Mamudo Ismail, speaking on Wednesday, during the closing session of a Mozambique/Portugal Medical Congress, said that it is the association with HIV/AIDS that has made tuberculosis more difficult to treat.
He pointed out that between 70 and 80 per cent of HIV- positive patients also have tuberculosis.
HIV attacks the human body's immune system, making the victim vulnerable to infection. TB is one of the most common of these opportunist infections.
Ismail said that the three day meeting discussed the association of tuberculosis with HIV/AIDS, and the question of which disease should be tackled first in attempts to stabilise the condition of patients.
The doctors discussed the question of resistance to antibiotics and other drugs, often due to interruption or abandonment of tuberculosis treatment, and the new phenomenon of resistance to the anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs used to prolong the lives of HIV-positive patients.
"As you know, the HIV virus is in permanent mutation, and within one or two weeks there will be new variants of the virus, hence the difficulty in finding a vaccine", said Ismail.
The Portuguese doctors "also brought an update in the therapeutic scheme, in the existing types of drugs and the cocktails of drugs used, which may differ from those used by the Health Ministry, and they showed the advantages and disadvantages of each", said Ismail.
The meeting discussed various themes related to public health and produced recommendations that are to guide doctors' work in the future.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200612070954.html
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 11:30 am
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