Issued by: The Department of Health
4 March 1998
PRETORIA - Health workers are to take frontline position in the fight against tuberculosis as the Department of Health changes its focus to improve the treatment success rates and prepares for World TB Day on March 24.
Countrywide health workers will be encouraged to commit themselves to DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short-course), an internationally renowned TB Control strategy.
"This shows poor performance" says Dr Neil Cameron, the head of the Communicable Disease Control Directorate. "We want to use DOTS to ensure that at least nine out of ten patients test negative for all trace of TB infection in their sputum after treatment for a period of two to three months. This should be achieved in at least a third of the clinics in the country by December 1998".
The DOTS strategy requires health workers to ensure that TB patients are directly observed for at least the first two months of treatment.
Patients are usually still sick during this period and are likely to accept advice from health workers. However, as soon as they start feeling better, many patients stop taking treatment, putting themselves at risk of developing a more fatal Multi Drug Resistance Tuberculosis, a stage where the body may have developed resistance to the TB drugs they had takenencouraged to use the two month period to bond with the patient, build a relationship of trusts whereby patients are helped to understand the importance of completing treatment such that they can later continue their treatment, even without close supervision.
"We want a situation where the patient finds it easy to communicate with the health care worker, and that makes it easier for the monitoring process to go on undisturbed," said Dr Cameron.
South Africa is in the middle of a TB epidemic, with approximately 1 000 people being killed every month by a disease which is nearly a 100 percent curable, the Department has reported.
Experts estimate that one new TB patient infects about three others before they start treatment, and one TB patient who drops out before treatment is completed infects 10 others before they present themselves to the health system, more sick than the first time.
For further information contact: Ntombekhaya Matsha Fax Number: 012 326 8626
Contact: Mini Vusani Phone: 012-312 0621 Fax: 012-325 7814