ZAMBOANGA CITY, Nov. 24 (PIA) - - State owned hospital-Zamboanga City Medical Center (ZCMC) now makes better if not best service when it comes to Tuberculosis (TB) detection and TB drug administration as it boasts of its newly acquired P13.5 Million TB diagnostic machine.
The state of the art machine called GeneXpert MTB/RIF is capable of identifying bacteria causing Tuberculosis and can screen the sputum in just a matter of two hours and can give fast and accurate result.
The high end machine has the capability to detect whether the bacteria is resistant to first line of anti-TB drug-Rifampicin.
“Patients found to have Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) or those resistant to Rifampicin will immediately be given the second line of TB drugs,” explained Dr. Marcelino Medina, Head, Programmatic Management Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (PMDT), ZCMC.
Medina shared, the machine was acquired through Global Fund and is worth P13.5 Million. It is the first and the only in the entire Zamboanga Peninsula region.
Medina also assured that aside from the “high tech” TB diagnostic machine, ZCMC has complete and enough anti TB drugs which is given for free to patients.
Medina said the government spends so much money in the aid of TB patients and stressed that information dissemination, early detection and early treatment is needed to combat TB.(JPA/PIA-ZBST)
