Eastern Cape struggling to cope with TB outbreak

The Eastern Cape has been caught off-guard by outbreaks of the feared multi-drug-resistant (MDR) and extreme-drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) strains.

There are not enough beds in the hospitals to isolate patients suffering from the highly infectious variants of the disease. There is only one designated TB hospital for the whole province situated in Port Elizabeth while two other hospitals also treat patients, giving a total of only 52 beds and 72 patients diagnosed with MDR and XDR.

The Jose Pearson hospital in Port Elizabeth has been the only referral health centre for all patients in need of advanced treatment for TB. Recently there has been an upsurge in the number of new cases of MDR and the previously not so well-known XDR forms of TB in some parts of the province. They were all referred to the Jose Pearson hospital. However some hospitals like the new modern Madzikane Memorial hospital in Mount Frere have been provided with isolation wards.
source:www.sabcnews.com