on TB Blitz Campaign, East London,
3 August 2006
My colleagues, MECs
Mayors and Councillors
Our business and community partners
Distinguished guests
Community of uMdantsane township
Good Morning,
We have a problem of tuberculosis (TB) in this country with more and more
people getting infected and developing TB every day. Last year, close to 300
000 people were found to have TB.
The chances are that by the time these people were diagnosed and treated
they probably had already infected other people they come into contact with on
a regular basis.
We have launched a National TB Crisis Management Plan and identified four
districts with the highest number of TB cases and low cure rates in the
country. These districts are Amathole and Nelson Mandela Metro in Eastern Cape,
Johannesburg Metro in Gauteng and Ethekwini Metro in KwaZulu-Natal.
We are here today to say this situation can be reversed and will be visiting
other districts to raise awareness and mobilise support for the TB control
programme.
With a population of 1,6 million, Amathole district recorded 7 900 new cases
of TB in 2004. The district has the lowest cure rate in the country at 31
percent. As national, provincial and local government, communities and various
sectors of our society, we have a collective responsibility to improve
detection and cure rates and reduce default rates in all these four focus
districts.
As part of our commitment to this initiative, we have budgeted R36 million
for strengthening TB control programmes in the four districts.
Programme Director, failure to complete the TB treatment poses major
challenges including development of multi-drug resistant TB.
Government spends at least R400 per patient for treating ordinary TB. For
multi-drug resistant TB, the cost of treatment dramatically increases to R24
000 per patient (including hospitalisation and more expensive drugs).
Those amongst us here who have had multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB will tell
you that it is not a good experience because you have to remain in hospital for
up to six months because the treatment includes daily injections for a period
of four to six months. This is not meant to punish people but we do not have
any other better drugs to treat MDR TB in the whole world. That is why it is
important to prevent this type of TB from occurring in the first place.
The highest numbers of TB cases in the Eastern Cape are reported in the
urban areas in Nelson Mandela Metro and Amathole District which includes East
London.
The main problem is that the majority of people come to the clinics to seek
help when they are already very sick because they do not know the symptoms of
TB. The ongoing cough is taken as a ânormal coughâ as long as the person does
not have problem such as pain, shortness of breath and coughing up blood. We
should not wait for these symptoms because these indicate that the disease is
at an advanced stage already. There is no such thing as a ânormal coughâ.
Some people may recognise the symptoms but are reluctant to come to our
clinics because they are afraid to confirm that they indeed have TB. This is
because some people fear that their family, friends or co-workers will shun
them because they have TB. This results in unnecessary deaths from
tuberculosis, which is a totally treatable and curable disease.
Government has tried to make it easier for TB patients to cope with the
disease and the poverty through introduction of grants for TB patients.
However, in some cases this assistance has been grossly abused. It has been
reported that some people would not want to complete the treatment in order to
continue receiving the grant. Some are reportedly making money from selling
sputum that is positive for TB. We cannot allow this abuse of resources to
continue.
People also tend to start treatment and not complete it because they feel
better and do not understand the need to continue taking the tablets, which is
wrong. Once you start the treatment you must complete it otherwise you risk
developing the resistant form of TB, which I have spoken about.
We also need to ensure that we have support systems for all TB patients at
home, work, schools and in the communities generally. This would help the
individual to cope with the disease, the long-term treatment and the
socio-economic conditions associated with the disease.
In order to achieve this government will need the assistance of the
communities, non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations,
business and industry, private medical sector, traditional healers and
traditional leaders to assist us. I therefore would like to call upon each one
of us gathered here to identify a role we can play in the prevention of the
spread of TB in our communities and STOP TBâ¦because we CAN!
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Health
3 August 2006
