Inmates want regular TB checks

BUIMO jail inmates have called on the Morobe health division and the Lae city council to provide a medical officer every month.
They said the conditions they lived in made them vulnerable to diseases such as tuberculosis (TB).
The prisoners made the call at a one-day workshop conducted by Stella Rumbam of World Vision TB DOTs programme and Sabina Waffi of World Health Organization.
Eight prisoners, seven male and a female, and four warders, two male and two female, attended the direct-observe-treatment (DOT) short course.
The inmates were the first in PNG to be trained with basic tuberculosis (TB) information to be able to identify and supervise their fellow inmates with treatment.
Most prison camps around the country have high chances for diseases  like pulmonary TB, (in Tok Pisin known as “market TB), to spread.
Market TB can be acquired from being exposed to an infected person’s cough, sneeze, or sputum.
The World Vision-PNG and the World Health Organization, through the Global Fund, assisted the Morobe  health division to reach out into Buimo jail.
Buimo jail commander Timbi Kaugla commended the Morobe administration through deputy health adviser Micah Yawing, for increasing the knowledge and capability of the prisoners.
Yawing said TB was 100% preventable and could be cured within six months of treatment.