TB rate skyrocketing

By OGIA MIAMEL
THE rate of new infections for tuberculosis (TB) per year in Papua New Guinea has increased from 3000 in 2005 to 30,000 in 2015, an official says.
Businesses for Health (B4H) TB project manager Dr Ann Clarke said at a project launching: “Business for Health TB project aims to engage the private sector to suppor the Department of Health’s efforts to end the TB epidemic and reduce the high rates of drug resistant TB, particularly in the National Capital District.
“Around 20 per cent (more than 6000 of the nearly 30,000 new TB infections in PNG were detected in National Capital District in 2015.”
Clarke said the project would offer workplace training courses to ensure all workplaces were able to use TB treatment pathways that maximised early detection, efficient testing and treatment adherence.
“I am not here to try and turn you into TB experts and TB doctors. I am here to change behaviours and to provide network and information necessary for you to make use of the world class facilities that can be found in 15 locations around the NCD.
“If we can stop people getting sick, after one year and two years and start attending to people coughing up to two weeks we can change the pace of this epidemic.”