Hospital patient being treated for TB

The health authorities are treating a female patient at Mater Dei Hospital who was diagnosed with tuberculosis and are screening people who had prolonged contact with the patient over the past weeks.

Speaking to the media during a press conference held yesterday to mark World Tuberculosis Day, which was commemorated on Monday, the health authorities said the patient was not Maltese.

Although her age was not given, they said she had originally been admitted to a medical ward at Mater Dei Hospital with a suspected chest infection but was later diagnosed with TB. As is usually done with all patients diagnosed with TB, the patient was transferred to an isolated room to avoid the risk of spreading the disease. The room is purposely equipped for air to be sucked out.

Health Director Ray Busuttil said the woman tried discharging herself from hospital for other personal reasons but the health authorities kept her in the isolated room. Dr Busuttil said the woman had been tested for TB but the first and second tests produced negative results. It was only after the third examination that the patient was diagnosed with TB. She had been in hospital for 18 days.

The authorities decided to summon patients who had been in the person's room. Hospital staff members are also being screened.

Charmaine Gauci, director of the Health Promotion Department, stressed that contact with the patient had to be prolonged in order for one to be at risk.

The last time there was a case of TB at Mater Dei Hospital was in December when an 84-year-old Maltese man was diagnosed with the disease.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Joe Cassar, addressing his first press conference since being appointed, said TB was a reality that existed in several countries around the world and 38 new cases were reported last year in Malta. Half of these involved Maltese citizens.

He said there were 90,000 new cases of TB reported in the EU last year. Around the world, about 9.2 million new cases were reported.

Dr Cassar said the European Centre of Disease Control had drawn up a framework action plan to fight TB in the EU through which the Health Promotion Department is setting up a forum on the subject.

TB is an infectious disease characterised by the formation of tubercles on the lungs and other tissues of the body. The patient usually has symptoms of a chest infection with coughing and sometimes also fever. If untreated, it could lead to death.

In Malta, TB patients undergo a six-month long treatment and are monitored on a daily basis to ensure that the medication is taken.

Dr Busuttil said the incidence of TB in Malta is not directly related to the influx or presence of irregular immigrants who are screened upon their arrival and screened again before leaving the detention centres.