Ashok (40), a mechanic and resident of Kotekar, has for the past nine months been taking eight tablets every morning to treat the drug resistant tuberculosis that he has been diagnosed with.
He has been following the same schedule, under the watchful eyes of a staff nurse, at the newly-opened Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Centre at the Government Wenlock Hospital.
Mr. Ashok is one of two patients with drug resistant tuberculosis at the centre. “There is no change in the schedule of taking drugs. The difference now is there are people here to attend to discomfort I have at the time of taking medicines.”
Mr. Ashok was suffering from breathlessness after consuming drugs. “It’s better here,” he said. This centre was among seven new additions to the Government Wenlock Hospital that were formally inaugurated by District in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai and Health Minister U.T. Khader. This centre, proposed four years ago, was ready in August.
Patients with drug resistant tuberculosis will be here for about two weeks when they will be treated for free. Mr. Ashok and Balakrishna (60), also from Kotekar, are the first two patients.
Mr. Balakrishna has been diagnosed with extreme multi drug resistant tuberculosis.
Among the new facilities formally launched on Friday included the Clubfoot Treatment Centre, which has been operating in the hospital since March.
As many as 33 children with clubfoot have been treated of which 12 have recovered completely, said Gopi Busantham, the State Program Manager of Cure India that runs the centre.
The other centres that were inaugurated were the full-fledged Dental Treatment Clinic run by A.J. Shetty Institute of Dental Sciences, Semi ICU of 12 beds, new X-ray centre, new mortuary and sewage treatment plant.
