Report flags barriers to accessing child-friendly tuberculosis medications

Pediatrician Mahli Brindamour knows of parents and nurses in northern Saskatchewan who spend hours every day begging reluctant children to take their daily antibiotics for tuberculosis.They crush pills meant for adults and hide them in yogurt, apple sauce or syrupy liquids, but those tricks rarely mask the bitter taste of drugs that children usually must take for six months to cure their potentially lethal disease.“I’ve had kids who have just refused to eat anything subsequent to this trauma of having to take this medication,” said Dr. Brindamour, who works with the Saskatchewan tuberculosis prevention and control program. In the most extreme cases, she added, children with TB in her province have been admitted to hospital so tubes could be put in their noses to deliver antibiotics they refuse to swallow.