Miriam dedicated to TB fight

Ten years after retiring as a nurse, Sister Miriam Ase returned to the workforce, upholding the oath she took in her chosen profession as her duty to care for the sick.
With over 40 years of nursing experience and a heart-warming smile, Ase has become a familiar face across Daru Island, Western, working with communities on the frontline of the emergency response to tuberculosis (TB).
As the Emergency TB response nursing officer at Daru General Hospital, Ase’s role is to visit houses where people newly-diagnosed with TB lived and investigate if other family members
were also showing signs and symptoms.
The approach is called “contact tracing” and involves monitoring patients after exposure to ensure they get proper care and treatment, and to prevent the further spread of TB.
“When I heard about the emergency response, I was genuinely concerned for my family’s well-being,” she recalled.
“It was 10 years after I had retired, but I decided to apply for work again at the hospital.
“I’m a nurse by profession, but specialise in contact tracing.
“This involves a lot of community engagement, where we visit the homes of TB patients to investigate if there are other members of the household that may have TB.”
In addition to checking on the welfare of TB patients, the visits are also an opportunity to educate families and communities about TB and prevent the spread of the deadly disease.
Patients at high risk of TB are encouraged to go for further testing, diagnosis and counselling at Daru General Hospital or one of five Daru Accelerated Response for TB sites across the island.
Those who test positive receive a chest X-ray and sputum test, and commence treatment immediately once the tests come back positive.
Children under five years of age who test negative are also put on infant preventative therapy to safeguard them from future infection.
“The challenge is that contact response times are often slow,” Ase explained.
“Sometimes we have to visit at least three times before other family members are actually convinced to go to the hospital for testing and counselling.”
Originally from Misima Island in Milne Bay, Ase graduated with a certificate in nursing in 1978 from the former Papua Medical College, now the University of Papua New Guinea’s School of Medicine and Health Science.
After working at urban health clinics in Port Moresby for a couple of years, she then moved to Daru to work at the hospital.
It was there she met her husband of 35 years and raised four daughters before he died in early 2015.
After retiring in 2006, Ase returned to work when the TB emergency response broke out in Daru in 2016.
Daru has one of the highest TB and multi-resistant TB rates per capita in the country.
Contact tracing is part of a holistic approach to tackle TB in
Daru, including early identification and diagnosis, strengthened case management and infection control.
The Australian Government is supporting the emergency response to TB in Daru in partnership with the National Department of Health, Daru General Hospital, the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank, Burnet Institute and World Vision.