Primary Complex Symptoms and Treatment

My 5 years old daughter was diagnosed from primary complex 20 days ago, she is now taking HZ2 pedia kit from Unilab. It contains Rifampicin, pyrazinamide and isoniazid.  At first the pedia dosage for the three meds are 5 ml she weighted 19 kilos, but now she loss 2 kilos that’s why she down to 4 ml. 

Rifampicin and isoniazid should be taken empty stomach.  That means it should be taken 1 hr or 2 hrs before meal or after meal while pyrazinamide can be taken anytime.  Some parents would prefer to drink the two meds before breakfast but in my case I prefer to take it between breakfast and lunchtime. At second visit, our pedia advise it to take at bedtime. It is important to take these three medicines religiously meaning don’t skip and should be taken everyday for the entire six months.  If you skip, bacteria may become resistance to these drugs and later on needs more other strong medicines.

Pyrazinamide is taken for only two months while Rifampicin and isoniazid is taken for six months.  If there is no improvement, it will have an extension of three months for the total of nine months. One indication that your child is cured from primary complex is weight gain and no other symptoms of PTB.

The symptoms of primary complex include enlarged lymph nodes in the neck area, prolonged cough that doesn’t resolve with treatment, low grade afternoon fever, weight loss, loss of appetite.  In order to diagnose primary complex is by positive PPD or tuberculin test and chest xray.  If there is positive PPD and negative xray, the child should is also require to take one type of anti-TB medicines which is the isoniazid for six months also. PPD or tuberculin test positive result means that there is an TB bacteria exposure that why it is also recommended to take medicine for prevention.

If your kid is diagnosed primary complex, it is essential to treat it immediately without delay because untreated tuberculosis may lead to complications which can be life threatening.