Jane Njogu, Rirutta Health Center Nurse and TB Specialist on November 28th, 2009 educated guardians on Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB) disease. She informed the guardians on the causes of TB, signs and symptoms of TB, the importance of drug adherence and compliance for TB patients and the causes on MDR TB. Ms Njogu said that TB was an airborne disease therefore making everyone exposed to the germs vulnerable to the disease. “TB is not a disease that we decide to have or not to have,” said Ms Njogu. She said that Kenya had 583 patients with multiple drug resistant TB; 320 on treatment, 100 dead and the rest 100 could not be accounted for. Kenya also had one patient with very strenuous TB that was drug resistant. She noted that it was important for people to encourage TB patients to take their medication faithfully to avoid the MDR TB. TB is an airborne disease caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is transmitted during coughing, spitting, sneezing, or talking primarily from person to person by breathing infected air during close contact. A cough from a sick person releases millions of TB bacteria into the air and it takes three days to settle in the air. The bacteria can attack any part of your body, but commonly attacks the lungs. People infected with TB do not feel sick, do not have symptoms, and cannot spread TB. However, they may develop TB at some time in the future if the body immunity is compromised. TB can spread to other parts of the body if the lymphatic vessels are unable to fight the bacteria, this type of TB cannot be passed to other people. Factors contributing to TB infection included concentration of germs in a place with poor ventilation, duration of exposure and proximity to a TB infected person. Signs and symptoms of TB included: a cough exceeding two weeks, night sweats, weight loss, coughing sputum with blood stains, breathing difficulties, general tiredness, high fever, loss of appetite and immobility in children. A sputum test or a chest x-ray is able to identify TB disease in a person. TB treatment takes a period of 6 months in Nairobi and eight months outside Nairobi. “We need to support TB patients to take their medication promptly,” said Ms Njogu. She said that it was a public offense to fail to complete TB medication and one could be sentenced to jail. Failure to drug compliance also contributed to increasing number of people with MDR TB which posed great danger to the healthy people. “The government of Kenya spends Ksh. 7000 on medication alone without any consultation charges for each TB patient. It also spends over Kshs. 1.6 million to treat MDR TB,” said Ms Njogu. Multiple Drug Resistant TB (MDR TB) occurs as a result of poor patient compliance of TB drugs, lack of detection of resistant strains of TB, infection of more than one strain of the TB bacteria and unavailability of TB therapy. MDR TB is resistant to at least two of the best anti-TB medications, isoniazid and rifampin, which are considered first-line drugs used to treat all people with drug-susceptible TB. MDR TB may be treated with some of the second-line drugs used to treat TB. Lack of proper treatment of MDRTB could result into “Extensively Drug Resistant TB” XDR TB, a rare and dangerous form of TB resistant to the drugs routinely used to treat TB infections. XDR TB is extremely difficult and very expensive to treat. The treatment available for this type of TB has worse drug side effects on a patient. Ms Njogu concluded the session by emphasizing that people with TB disease could be treated and cured if they sought medical help. She urged anyone suspecting to be ailing from TB to visit Rirutta Health Center and take a free TB test.