ARMENIA: TEVAN, A CURED PATIENT HELPS OTHERS THROUGH TOUGH DR-TB TREATMENT

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
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March 24 2010
France

Yerevan, Armenia. February 2010 – With a sturdy build and a firm
handshake, today, Tevan* is a picture of health, but around two years
ago, the cured drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) patient was in
extremely bad shape.

"One day at work I felt unwell and became very weak and could hardly
get into a taxi to come home. For two days I was sick at home with a
high temperature and then I started coughing up blood," said Tevan,
who before he contracted DR-TB was a construction manager.

Before his diagnosis of DR-TB, he lost 20 kilograms and but was
eventually admitted to the programme supervised by MSF in the Armenian
capital Yerevan.

After more than two years of grueling treatment, he is now fully
recovered.

Treatment for DR-TB begins in the national TB centre in the capital,
where patients stay until they are no longer transmitting the
contagious disease, a period that usually take two months.

Following hospitalization, patients can return home and attend an
ambulatory clinic six days per week to receive their doses of drugs
to fight the air-borne disease.

Tavan, like most patients, had to take the toxic drugs for around two
years, a task that requires immense strength of will and support from
the MSF social work and psychological team.

The most recent drugs used to tackle DR-TB were strong antibiotics
developed in the 1940s, and the combination of pills, powders and
injections frequently have severe mental and physical side effects.

"It was really difficult to take these drugs. I was unable to explain
what was happening to me. I was unable to stand, I was unable to walk,
I could not lie down and I felt nauseous," said 50-year-old Tevan.

If patients have pre existing medical conditions, the severity of
the side effects can become unbearable. "If the patient started
(treatment) with gastritis problems, at that time the patient feels
more abdominal pain than the disease," said Dr Shahidul Islam, an
MSF doctor working on the MSF project.

"In that case, sometimes the patient doesn’t want to take the drugs.

They stop taking them because of the side effects," said Dr Shahid.

In the cohort of patients admitted to the MSF supported programme
in 2007, around 21 per cent failed to complete the full course of
treatment, with many saying it was the punishing drug regime that
made them unable to continue.

While being treated and since being cured, Tavan does what he can to
ensure as many patients as possible continue the course of drugs.

"During treatment I gave my experience, so they could see how I was
recovering day by day, so they believe in the treatment and become
stronger in their adherence," said Tavan.

"I always give good advice and told them my example, in what condition
I was when I started treatment. At that time I felt half-dead, and
now I am healthy. Some follow, some don’t."

*Patient names have been changed