Paediatric TB is not a spiritual disease —Principal PA

 Paediatric Tuberculosis (TB) is not a spiritual disease, rather a bac­terial infection that can be cured with proper treatment, Mrs Josephine Adusei, Principal Physician Assistant (PA) at the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital, has said.

She said, Paediatric TB is serious in the Western Region, and of late, there are reports that children are coming up with this condition, but because the awareness is not that much, the children are going unnoticed.

Mrs Adusei who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said they have realised children whose weights were not cor­responding to their ages and heights, was a marker that they needed to pick up.

She said a child with persistent fever, cough of any duration, whether for days or weeks, malnourished and abdomen distended, not that the child had over eaten, adding “As an adult, if you have a child who looks like this or have any of these symptoms, bring that child to the facility early, so we can investigate further; TB is an air­borne disease.

“For instance, if an adult stays in a room with a child, coughs and is diagnosed with TB, you put that child at a greater risk because the child is closer to you and always breaths in the air, you are bringing out. That child becomes a contact of you the TB patient,” Mrs Adusei explained.

He added that TB affects various parts of the body, including lungs, kid­neys, lymph nodes, bones and joints, abdomen, and even the heart.

She said “Now Tarkwa Municipal Hospital has the ability to test the stools of a child less than five years or maximum five years. Earlier on, we did not have that luxury, but currently it is available, and we can put any child having the TB bacteria on treat­ment. We are encouraging parents to be proactive”.

In 2024 the Tarkwa Municipal Hospi­tal, recorded three cases of Paediatric TB, two of them were cases that the facility did not pick the sample as the bacteria was not there, but clinically, the child presented signs and symp­toms that they knew would have TB.

She said two of them have since been treated, while the remaining one they conducted further tests, and that child has also been declared cured. –GNA