Actualidad

©Muhammad Yusuf (8) is undergoing a sputum induction in a specialized room in Paediatric TB hospital in Dushanbe. Sputum is a thick mucus that adults cough up when their lungs are diseased or damaged. Analysing sputum culture is considered the best way to diagnose TB. However, children have great difficulty in producing it themselves. Sputum induction uses a nebulizer machine through which the child inhales concentrated saline solution, that leads to coughing and sputum production. “We do the sputum induction for diagnosis and during the treatment to determine whether the child is infectious and has to stay in the hospital or is no longer infectious and can be treated at home,” explains Zamira Rakhmonova, an MSF nurse working in the Paediatric TB hospital in Dushanbe. “Once their sputum is clear and other test results such X-rays are good, they can go home and continue their treatment there.”