Deadly TB lingers from Youth Games

Setshego Gaobolwe | Wednesday July 2, 2014 07:50

 

A representative from the Urban Development Committee, Tebogo Tshoswane, brought the matter to light on Monday when briefing the Full Council meeting about the Committee’s activities.

“It is true that there is a young boy here and nurses are facing a problem because the boy can only speak French and is not conversant with English,” he said.

Tshoswane said health officials had confirmed to the Committee that the teenager did not return to his home country, but instead had to be quarantined to avoid spread of the highly contagious disease.

On Monday afternoon, a Mmegi news crew was able to establish that the young man was indeed at the Extension 12 quarantine centre as he battles the disease. A Botswana Youth Games Organising Committee official confirmed that the athlete was still in the country, but declined to comment further saying the matter involved diplomatic relations as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and thus had strict procedures regarding media disclosure.

It is understood WHO is closely overseeing the matter in line with its policies that state that a patient cannot be returned to a country from where he cannot access medication.

The Youth Games brought more than 2,500 African athletes to Gaborone with the organising committee and health authorities keenly on the lookout for communicable diseases such as Tuberculosis and Ebola.

MDR-TB develops in otherwise treatable TB when the course of antibiotics is interrupted and the levels of drug in the body are insufficient to kill 100 percent of bacteria.

According to WHO, a patient who develops an active disease with a drug-resistant TB strain can transmit this form of TB to other individuals.

Various health care experts say this form of TB is difficult and costly to treat and can be fatal.