Palliative Care in TB patients

Palliative care is specialised medical care for people living with a serious illness.

• This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness.
• The goal is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and the family.
• Palliative care is based on the needs of the patient, not on the patient’s prognosis.

Need for Palliative Care for TB Patients

TB is, and should be, a curable disease; however, each year an increasing number of patients acquire or develop drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), which has a much lower cure rate.

While the expectations are to have increasing numbers of treatment success rates, DR-TB remains a life-threatening condition with high mortality.

The life-threatening nature of DR-TB and the burden of disease management in terms of symptoms, adverse treatment effects, adherence, stigma and subsequent discrimination and social isolation, clearly show the need for care that addresses physical, social and emotional suffering by patients.

Thus, the need for palliative care is being increasingly recognised as an important part of the continuum of care for DR-TB patients.

Challenges in Palliative Care

At present, there is a scarcity of trained health workers and local community-based palliative care resources in the settings that are most in need. Although clinical expertise in palliative care for patients who die in respiratory distress has developed considerably, individuals with DR-TB are yet to see the benefits.

Services under Palliative Care for TB

• Addressing pain and symptom control (including respiratory insufficiency)
• Nutritional support
• Medical intervention after treatment cessation
• Ensuring the appropriate place of care, preventive care, infection control and end-of-life care

Supportive Measures in Palliative Care

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ResoResources

Guidelines for Programmatic Management of Drug-resistant Tuberculosis in India, March 2021, Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Assessment