Date: 08/12/2006
Source: Free State Provincial Government
Title: Belot: Tuberculosis blitz event
Speech by the MEC for Health, Mr Sakhiwo Belot at the tuberculosis (TB) blitz event, Sasolburg, Fezile Dabi District
Programme Director
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
During the month of December our focus as far as health issues are concerned falls on HIV and AIDS but today we are meeting here in Sasolburg to draw attention to the provincial tuberculosis programme and more so, the need to trace defaulters, especially in the Fezile Dabi district, and motive them to come back to the TB programme. Our theme is 'A call for action, Stop TB'.
Programme Director, in July of this year we launched the Provincial TB Crises Management Plan. This provincial plan has been developed for implementation in the Fezile Dabi district as a matter of priority to strengthen the management of TB in this district. We have targeted this district specifically as it has the lowest cure rate in the province and a high proportion of TB cases that is not evaluated. Today whilst joining health workers in the door to door campaign, I realised again that we need to call on every member of community to take action to stop the spread of tuberculosis.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Free State TB Control Programme’s crisis plan aims at:
* flooding the communities with messages and activities to increase awareness
* implementing emergency strategies from the crisis plan to control the worsening tuberculosis epidemic
* rapidly improving tuberculosis case detection and treatment success rates
* expanding provincial partnerships for TB control, especially with the mining sector
* implementing strategies to reduce patient default and transfer out rates to 10% or less.
The programme also faces some challenges as patients present late at our health facilities as a result of a lack of awareness about the disease and the stigma associated with TB. There is also a poor adherence to treatment, which is a result of a lack of understanding of the importance of complying with the treatment prescribed. We have also found a low conversion rate of the positive smears at two or three months and some patients do not utilise the local health facility in their area, especially workers working far from home such as the mineworkers or farm labourers, and this causes patients to miss out on their follow-up visits and medication.
There has been significant progress in the detection of TB cases in the Free State after the implementation of the active case-finding campaign in 2005. The TB Control Programme at district and provincial level still have a problem in ensuring that people with confirmed TB adhere to treatment until completion.
One of the achievements in 2006/07 is the training of managers and doctors from both the public and private sectors in the control and management of tuberculosis. This includes also the doctors and nurses from the mining industry. Programme Director, today's event was preceded by TB screening and sputum testing in Sasolburg. This morning there has been an active case-finding campaign whereby people who have signs and symptoms of TB can present themselves for sputum testing. This will be ongoing throughout the event.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have to mention the important role of the Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) supporters. This group of men and women:
* Conduct continuous awareness within communities through door-to-door campaigns. I joined a group of supporters this morning and have great appreciation for the hard work they are doing.
* Supervise the TB patients when taking the medication; and most of all
* Give support and encouragement to the TB patients until they complete the six months' treatment period.
In March this year we launched our Provincial Campaign of tracing back defaulters into the programme known as “Operation Khuthlela”. With this campaign we would like to encourage people who have been diagnosed with TB to complete their treatment. Failure to do this will result into a serious condition known as Multi-drug Resistant TB (MDR TB). MDR TB takes longer and is more difficult and expensive to treat. A person is expected to take MDR TB medication for up to two years and should this fail to happen and a person defaults MDR TB medication, he/she is in danger of having an even more serious condition known as Extreme Drug Resistant TB (XDR TB). The unfortunate part is that this condition can lead to death. I am pleased to announce that since the implementation of Operation Khuthlela, more and more treatment defaulters were traced and are now back on the programme all over the province.
Programme Director, the media constantly reminds us of the new strain of TB called Extreme Drug Resistant or XDR. I would like to briefly touch on this and would like to make you aware of the new strain. XDR was discovered in KwaZulu-Natal and has also been found in other provinces including the Free State. Let me take this opportunity to explain to you what is XDR TB and how it happens. It all starts with the ordinary TB that we are familiar with. A client is diagnosed with TB and is expected to take treatment for six months or eight months and if he/she does not complete the treatment as required, then he/she develops Multi Drug Resistant TB. This client then has to take treatment longer than the previous time (up to two years), as the TB bacteria has now developed a much stronger resistance against treatment.
If this client still fails to take treatment as required, he/she will develop XDR TB which at this point cannot be treated with any drugs available in South Africa as it is resistant to all. This is an extremely dangerous form of TB. It is therefore important for those diagnosed with TB to take and finish their treatment as informed by the health institution they attend.
As communities it is our responsibility to support those on treatment, to advise those coughing longer than two weeks to go for sputum tests, and to report to our healthcare workers anyone who refuses to go for tests or whom you know is refusing to go for treatment. As individuals we are the only ones who can stop all TB. TB is preventable and can be cured free of charge with the resources offered by the government.
Ladies and gentlemen, government does not forget its responsibility but realises that it must involve the ordinary man and woman on the street in the control and management of tuberculosis. Furthermore, non-governmental organisations must also complement the Provincial TB Programme (PTCP) activities by carrying out awareness-raising, education, and outreach programmes of their own, in close consultation with the PTCP.
Today we call upon every member of society to help encourage those people that are known to have stopped taking their TB medication before they complete the six-month period. They are the ones who will in future develop complicated forms of TB or multi drug resistant TB and the extreme drug resistant TB which are difficult to treat.
Ladies and Gentlemen, TB is not merely a public health problem, but a broader socio-economic issue. It is for this reason that the Department of Health is strongly considering the involvement of the district health councillors in an effort to put TB on the table of decision makers and policy makers for the sole purpose to win co-operation, support, and to ensure the involvement from other government sectors, the private sector, big business as well as the youth. It is necessary for all of these organisations to adopt a more effective partnership approach to social mobilisation activities. The partnership approach requires that public participation is a fundamental principle, provides for access to TB treatment as a right and a provision of treatment as an obligation, and to reach out more aggressively to the poor, who are most affected by TB.
Finally, today I would like to acknowledge men and women who saw the importance of completing their TB treatment. The people standing in front of us today were diagnosed with positive smears and entered the programme by starting to take their medication. Today they were discharged from their clinics after they gave the last sample of the sputum. This group of fine individuals is a testimony that TB can be cured.
Programme Director, in conclusion, elements of poverty such as poor living conditions and malnutrition predisposes people to being infected with TB and the rapid development of infection to disease as a result of depressed immune system is a real reality. I would therefore like to encourage members of the community and community structures to form support groups in Fezile Dabi. Government cannot fight the battle alone – we need the help of each individual to ensure a healthy and self-reliant Free State community.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health, Free State Provincial Government
8 December 2006
Source: Free State Provincial Government
Title: Belot: Tuberculosis blitz event
Speech by the MEC for Health, Mr Sakhiwo Belot at the tuberculosis (TB) blitz event, Sasolburg, Fezile Dabi District
Programme Director
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
During the month of December our focus as far as health issues are concerned falls on HIV and AIDS but today we are meeting here in Sasolburg to draw attention to the provincial tuberculosis programme and more so, the need to trace defaulters, especially in the Fezile Dabi district, and motive them to come back to the TB programme. Our theme is 'A call for action, Stop TB'.
Programme Director, in July of this year we launched the Provincial TB Crises Management Plan. This provincial plan has been developed for implementation in the Fezile Dabi district as a matter of priority to strengthen the management of TB in this district. We have targeted this district specifically as it has the lowest cure rate in the province and a high proportion of TB cases that is not evaluated. Today whilst joining health workers in the door to door campaign, I realised again that we need to call on every member of community to take action to stop the spread of tuberculosis.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Free State TB Control Programme’s crisis plan aims at:
* flooding the communities with messages and activities to increase awareness
* implementing emergency strategies from the crisis plan to control the worsening tuberculosis epidemic
* rapidly improving tuberculosis case detection and treatment success rates
* expanding provincial partnerships for TB control, especially with the mining sector
* implementing strategies to reduce patient default and transfer out rates to 10% or less.
The programme also faces some challenges as patients present late at our health facilities as a result of a lack of awareness about the disease and the stigma associated with TB. There is also a poor adherence to treatment, which is a result of a lack of understanding of the importance of complying with the treatment prescribed. We have also found a low conversion rate of the positive smears at two or three months and some patients do not utilise the local health facility in their area, especially workers working far from home such as the mineworkers or farm labourers, and this causes patients to miss out on their follow-up visits and medication.
There has been significant progress in the detection of TB cases in the Free State after the implementation of the active case-finding campaign in 2005. The TB Control Programme at district and provincial level still have a problem in ensuring that people with confirmed TB adhere to treatment until completion.
One of the achievements in 2006/07 is the training of managers and doctors from both the public and private sectors in the control and management of tuberculosis. This includes also the doctors and nurses from the mining industry. Programme Director, today's event was preceded by TB screening and sputum testing in Sasolburg. This morning there has been an active case-finding campaign whereby people who have signs and symptoms of TB can present themselves for sputum testing. This will be ongoing throughout the event.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have to mention the important role of the Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) supporters. This group of men and women:
* Conduct continuous awareness within communities through door-to-door campaigns. I joined a group of supporters this morning and have great appreciation for the hard work they are doing.
* Supervise the TB patients when taking the medication; and most of all
* Give support and encouragement to the TB patients until they complete the six months' treatment period.
In March this year we launched our Provincial Campaign of tracing back defaulters into the programme known as “Operation Khuthlela”. With this campaign we would like to encourage people who have been diagnosed with TB to complete their treatment. Failure to do this will result into a serious condition known as Multi-drug Resistant TB (MDR TB). MDR TB takes longer and is more difficult and expensive to treat. A person is expected to take MDR TB medication for up to two years and should this fail to happen and a person defaults MDR TB medication, he/she is in danger of having an even more serious condition known as Extreme Drug Resistant TB (XDR TB). The unfortunate part is that this condition can lead to death. I am pleased to announce that since the implementation of Operation Khuthlela, more and more treatment defaulters were traced and are now back on the programme all over the province.
Programme Director, the media constantly reminds us of the new strain of TB called Extreme Drug Resistant or XDR. I would like to briefly touch on this and would like to make you aware of the new strain. XDR was discovered in KwaZulu-Natal and has also been found in other provinces including the Free State. Let me take this opportunity to explain to you what is XDR TB and how it happens. It all starts with the ordinary TB that we are familiar with. A client is diagnosed with TB and is expected to take treatment for six months or eight months and if he/she does not complete the treatment as required, then he/she develops Multi Drug Resistant TB. This client then has to take treatment longer than the previous time (up to two years), as the TB bacteria has now developed a much stronger resistance against treatment.
If this client still fails to take treatment as required, he/she will develop XDR TB which at this point cannot be treated with any drugs available in South Africa as it is resistant to all. This is an extremely dangerous form of TB. It is therefore important for those diagnosed with TB to take and finish their treatment as informed by the health institution they attend.
As communities it is our responsibility to support those on treatment, to advise those coughing longer than two weeks to go for sputum tests, and to report to our healthcare workers anyone who refuses to go for tests or whom you know is refusing to go for treatment. As individuals we are the only ones who can stop all TB. TB is preventable and can be cured free of charge with the resources offered by the government.
Ladies and gentlemen, government does not forget its responsibility but realises that it must involve the ordinary man and woman on the street in the control and management of tuberculosis. Furthermore, non-governmental organisations must also complement the Provincial TB Programme (PTCP) activities by carrying out awareness-raising, education, and outreach programmes of their own, in close consultation with the PTCP.
Today we call upon every member of society to help encourage those people that are known to have stopped taking their TB medication before they complete the six-month period. They are the ones who will in future develop complicated forms of TB or multi drug resistant TB and the extreme drug resistant TB which are difficult to treat.
Ladies and Gentlemen, TB is not merely a public health problem, but a broader socio-economic issue. It is for this reason that the Department of Health is strongly considering the involvement of the district health councillors in an effort to put TB on the table of decision makers and policy makers for the sole purpose to win co-operation, support, and to ensure the involvement from other government sectors, the private sector, big business as well as the youth. It is necessary for all of these organisations to adopt a more effective partnership approach to social mobilisation activities. The partnership approach requires that public participation is a fundamental principle, provides for access to TB treatment as a right and a provision of treatment as an obligation, and to reach out more aggressively to the poor, who are most affected by TB.
Finally, today I would like to acknowledge men and women who saw the importance of completing their TB treatment. The people standing in front of us today were diagnosed with positive smears and entered the programme by starting to take their medication. Today they were discharged from their clinics after they gave the last sample of the sputum. This group of fine individuals is a testimony that TB can be cured.
Programme Director, in conclusion, elements of poverty such as poor living conditions and malnutrition predisposes people to being infected with TB and the rapid development of infection to disease as a result of depressed immune system is a real reality. I would therefore like to encourage members of the community and community structures to form support groups in Fezile Dabi. Government cannot fight the battle alone – we need the help of each individual to ensure a healthy and self-reliant Free State community.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health, Free State Provincial Government
8 December 2006
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