North West MEC for Health and Social Development, Rebecca Kasienyane has urged over 30 000 patients receiving tuberculosis (TB) treatment in the province to complete their treatment as prescribed.
Addressing World TB Day commemoration today, MEC Kasienyane said TB is a curable condition however it’s amazing that it still kills millions of people around the world.
“We urge the community of the North West Province to fight TB together and take a lead in ensuring that we reach all our targets such as our TB cute rate.
“TB is curable but many TB patients fail to complete their treatment. Because they default, many patients then become victims of severe TB.
“We are again faced with several types of TB such as MDRTB and XDRTB which are as a result of TB that was not managed properly by us and by us I mean the people of North West Province,” Kasienyane said.
The province has 77 patients on MDR TB in its facilities with 401 treated as outpatients, while fourteen is on XDR TB treatment. TB account for 8.2 percent deaths in the province.
Defaulter rate is a cause for concern in the department since non-compliance to treatment is the major contributing factor to multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extreme drug resistant (XDR) TB. Treating MDR/XDR TB is very costly as compared to treating an ordinary TB. This puts a huge strain on the department resources given the numerous and complex public health challenges it is facing.
She highlighted that the province has turned the corner in the management of TB by having accredited all its health facilities to provide TB treatment.
“On top of accrediting our health facilities we have a functional MDR and XDR TB unit in Klerksdorp hospital. We have also opened a new MDR TB unit in Greater Taung Hospital for down referral of stable patients,” she said.
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Cell: 082 929 9958
E-mail: tlekgethwane@nwpg.gov.za
