TB to be Declared National Disaster in Swaziland. 7/2/11
“We have ensured that drugs are available so that everyone who is infected by TB gets the necessary treatment”
7 February 2011
Calsile Masilela
Tuberculosis continues to be the leading cause of death among people living with HIV and AIDS globally.
Locally, the disease would soon be declared as a national disaster.
This was said by Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr. Stephen Shongwe on Saturday when he opened the annual Malaria conference, which also featured the TB programme and journalists held at Pigg’s Peak Orion Hotel.
He said they were doing all they could to control TB in the country. “We have ensured that drugs are available so that everyone who is infected by TB gets the necessary treatment,” he said. Dr. Shongwe expressed gratitude to the programme officers for the work they were doing with regards to TB control. He also acknowledged the E280 million (US$40 million) grant received from Global Fund round 10.
National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCP) Manager Themba Dlamini explained that TB was a global burden disease affecting productive members of society. He said the increase in TB cases was fuelled by the emergence of HIV and AIDS.
”Despite enormous advances in provision of services in recent years, TB’s deadly synergy with HIV and AIDS and a surge in drug-resistant strains are threatening to destabilise gains in TB control,” he said.
Dlamini stated that as a programme they felt the need to engage the media so as to forge partnerships that would help in the fight against TB. He said the grant would help them scale up their interventions including the hiring of doctors and nurses for the decentralisation of their services.
“We have challenges including poor adherence to TB medication, thus creating among those who default.
Co-infection with tuberculosis and HIV (TB/HIV) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis in all regions, make control activities more complex and demanding,” he said. The programme manager stated that they would go to the communities to conduct education on TB as there was an observation that some people still lacked information about the disease.