Durban - KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health, Nomagugu Simelane, says there is an urgent need for greater focus on education and awareness of the signs and symptoms of tuberculosis (TB).
Simelane was speaking at the opening night of the 7th South African TB Conference being held in Durban this week. She said more programmes would help create a culture of TB prevention; early presentation for screening, testing and treatment; as well as adherence to treatment.
“The key to all of this is our ability to intensify our community outreach programmes, and to drive strong and sustainable mass communication efforts – all of which does not come cheap. Unfortunately, the budgetary cuts that we’ve been subjected to have made our job harder.”
She said this was something they continued to ask the national Department of Health and the Treasury to assist with.
“While we live in hope of receiving increased funding to address our many challenges – including staffing – we will nevertheless continue to strive to prevent, control and treat TB through various strategies.”
Siyabonga Nzimande, who is part of the National TB Sub-Sector Technical Working Group, said the issue was not necessarily funding, but the national Department of Health’s delays in appointing service providers.
“Also, yes, we need to take the clinical responsibility of TB back to communities.”
Lindeka Shandu, who was diagnosed with TB 10 years ago and survived it, said there was still a stigma attached to the disease, but education on TB had saved her life.
Shandu was 22 and had just finished writing her final exams when she found out she was sick. She was misdiagnosed the first two times she visited the doctor.
“I started getting flu-like symptoms, so I decided to see a doctor. The doctor told me I had flu and prescribed antibiotics and cough syrup.“
Shandu said that when the cough persisted she went back to the same doctor, who then told her she was probably sick from the stress caused by her exams, which made sense to her at the time. However, because she had read about TB and its symptoms, she suggested to the doctor that it might be the disease. After being brushed off by the doctor she became more ill, and her mother insisted she see a different physician.
“This doctor confirmed our suspicions with tests and I started a six-month course, and I was healed.”
Shandu said more education was needed as there were myths around the disease that people still believed.
The Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) in Durban, a non-governmental organisation, runs the Directly Observed Treatment (Dot) programme in its clinic for individuals who are on chronic medication, particularly TB medication, ARVs, anti-psychotic or anti-epileptic treatment to help them stay on their treatment.
Raymond Perrier, the director of the DHC, said there were three different issues with TB, the biggest being that it had been forgotten.
“Hundreds of people die of TB each month. Even when people know about it, they still don’t test, which means they are not treated”.
“One of the reasons people die is because they don’t adhere to the treatment. That leads to them being resistant to the treatment, and getting infected with multidrug-resistant TB.
“We try to solve the problem by offering testing and helping people get on medication and staying on it with our Dot programme.
“We drive around to find people (mainly the homeless) who have defaulted, and get them back on treatment. We understand that it is difficult to stay on treatment for six months,” he said.