Pretoria - With World TB Day to be commemorated later this month, the North West is embarking on an awareness campaign to sensitise the public.
World TB Day will be commemorated on 24 March and as a result the provincial Health Department said it will be engaging in several public awareness campaigns of the dangers and management of the disease.
Departmental spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane said the TB Management Directorate together with health promoters and volunteers among other things will begin with the campaign on Monday. Door to door visits as well as visits to taxi ranks among others will be conducted as part of the campaign.
In the last three years, the fight against the disease has yielded positive results with improved care to patients that are co-infected with both TB and HIV from 18 percent in 2008 to 38 percent in 2010.
"The Department of Health in the province is continuing with its intensive TB screening in all health facilities and that has proved to be a success already because TB detection has improved from 27 000 in 2009 to 30 000 in 2010," said Lekgethwane on Sunday. The disease accounts for 7 percent of the death rate in the province.
The late reporting of patients to health facilities as well as those who default on treatment - particularly in Bojanala - continues to be of concern said the department. The department said defaulting on treatment is the major contributor to Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) and Extreme Drug Resistant (XDR) TB which is costly to treat compared to ordinary TB. "This puts a huge strain on the department given the numerous and complex public health challenges it is facing," said Lekgethwane.
Currently there are 55 MDR patients and 419 out-patients with eight XDR in-patients with the MDR cure rate at 65 percent. The XDR cure rate stands at 16.1 percent.
The province will commemorate World TB Day in Tloung near Mafikeng.
