Issued by: Department of Health
Coordinator of the Belgium funds in Africa, Dr Marc De Maegd visited South Africa from 12 August to 22 August 1997. The purpose of the visit was to review the TB laboratory services provided with the three million Rands committed by the Belgian government to the National Tuberculosis (TB) Control Programme. During this review he was joined by the National TB Laboratory Services Coordinator, Mr Joel Mokonoto.
After the review of the TB Control Programme by the World Health Organisation experts in June 1996, the programme declared war against TB and introduced a new strategy called DOTS, which stands for Directly Observed Treatment Short-course. This strategy has a number of components namely:
1. using microscopes to ensure that TB is diagnosed in a
reliable and least expensive way.
2. training staff to detect TB correctly and ensuring that TB
patients are received and treated well by health
services.
3. ensuring that TB patients are directly observed by a
supporter as they swallow their medication everyday for a minimum
period of six months.
"International and national experts agree that for the DOTS strategy to work in this country, TB laboratory services needed major improvement, and the decision to direct the Belgian funds towards TB laboratories was based on these recommendations" said Mr Joel Mokonoto.
To diagnose TB, a patient needs to cough up material from the lungs and a specimen of this material is sent to the laboratory for investigation. The situation is very difficult in the rural areas where there are no laboratory facilities and transport system is also poor. As a result one of the weakest points of the TB Control Programme in South Africa is that patients wait for a long time to get their results from the laboratory to the clinic. This means that patients have to wait for about a week or more to know whether they have TB or not. These patients go back to their communities and continue spreading the disease to others.
The Belgian funds are being used to improve laboratory services in the rural areas. Initially, twenty three-new microscopy centres will be opened in the country and new centres have started functioning in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Twenty new microscopes have been bought which will be used to upgrade the existing laboratories.
Four hundred and thirty one (431) fax machines will be installed in clinics and laboratories throughout the country and the purpose of these fax machines is to improve the communication of results.
The Belgian funds Coordinator, accompanied by the National TB Control Programme team visited Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Western Cape to evaluate progress achieved with the Belgian funds. Dr Maegd had this to say: "We applaud what has been achieved in these areas. Now that these microscopes have been installed, TB patients will be diagnosed and treatment will commence on time and therefore reduce the spread of TB in the communities. It is encouraging to see that the National TB Control Programme has used the Belgian funds constructively and has brought these services closer to the people. By strengthening TB laboratory services in South Africa, the Belgium Government has indeed helped South Africa set up the foundations for implementing the new TB control strategy and to gain control of the biggest infectious killer in this country".
Lastly, the National TB Control Programme Manager, Dr Refiloe Matji said "We are pleased with this new laboratory equipment which will mainly help those people from rural areas to commence treatment on time. This means now we can expect to cure TB patients more quickly than ever before".
17 August 1999