Students get TB on stage to put it in spotlight

Education

Students from Kopkop College in Port Moresby took part in the World Tuberculosis Day celebrations to educate people on signs and symptoms of TB.
The students assisted members of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to put on a drama as a TB awareness play at the Gerehu General Hospital.
The drama showed that TB was a curable disease and does not require special treatment and is not a sorcery or custom-related sickness.
A student, Joash Bobai, said most times when a family member contracted TB, the relatives think of it as cough and starts giving him or her cough medicine.
“So when the cough does not end, people start blaming our customs and sorcery,” he said.
Bobai said the only way to help those with TB was to take them to the health clinic for a check-up.
MSF Outreach manager Chie Kuranodan thanked the students for making the event educational for the general public.
“We want the younger generation’s understanding on TB because they are the ones who are going to use their knowledge to educate others about TB and how we can all work together to reduce TB in our societies,” Kuranodan said.