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Today In History |
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On September 9, 1908
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Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Va
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NAMIBIA: Poor access to treatment hampers fight against TB |
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 WINDHOEK, 25 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - Despite its status as a middle-income country, Namibia has a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB), a poverty-related disease.
Poor
geographical access to health services has hampered the treatment rate
of TB, the country's second biggest killer, said Alfons Babie, an
official at the recently created directorate for special diseases in
the health ministry. Instead of the international target of 85 percent
stipulated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the TB treatment
rate in Namibia is only 64 percent.
Moreover, 40 percent of those infected do not continue with their TB
medication for the stipulated six-month course, and health authorities
have picked up an emerging multidrug-resistant TB epidemic.
The
lack of an electronic database also made it impossible for the health
system to trace patients who did not report for collection of their TB
drugs, explained Babie.
In 1996 the government introduced WHO's
Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course (DOTS) strategy, which
includes free medication and treatment at all government hospitals for
the six-month course of medication.
"If patients stop taking
their medication before that they have to start from scratch again, but
the TB bacillus has built up a resistance against the medication - it
has mutated - so a different drug cocktail must be found for the
patient," explained Kerstin van Wyk of Johanniter Hilfswerk, a German
NGO working with people infected with TB.
"We had cases where
patients interrupted [treatment] two or three times and had to be put
on different medication each time, as the TB bacillus built up a
resistance to the former medication cocktails," she noted.
The
health ministry noted in its latest annual report for the Khomas
region, where the capital, Windhoek, is situated, that many patients
defaulted "because they become too sick and too weak to walk to the
health facility, and cannot afford taxi money". The San, who live in
remote corners of the country are one of the worst affected by the
disease.
According to WHO, an average of 676 TB cases were
recorded for every 100,000 Namibians, putting the country at the top of
the world ranking for the disease.
Last year Namibia launched
its first national strategy to combat TB, which is also the principle
cause of death among people infected with HIV or living with AIDS. A
recent successful health ministry proposal to the Global Fund to fight
AIDS, TB and Malaria stated that about 50 percent of TB patients were
also HIV positive. "AIDS is worsening the TB infections," Babie told
IRIN.
This month the Fund announced the disbursement of US
$143,000 to the Namibian authorities to help fight TB, and approved a
further $7.2 million over five years for the TB programme.
The
funds will used to improve access to treatment by setting up
community-based DOTS in each of the country's 13 regions, hike its
treatment rate to reach the 85 percent target by the end of 2007, and
monitor TB drug resistance. |
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